Resident Evil Evolution
by LicensedMinkey
Summary: AU Vampire. It's a thing you know? The characters of the RE movies set in a different place, no apocalypse, but there will be zombies. And vampires and lots of things that go bump in the night. M rated, but there is a plot. In fact it's mostly a plot.
1. Chapter 1

**A/n So, here are again. _Someone_ started a new craze of AU vampire fiction, probably cause of some weird fetish she has. Anyhoo, I promised I would write one. **

**This is a story. There will be a plot. Whilst it will be erotica, it is not all about the sex. In fact, the sex isn't penciled in to happen anytime soon. While this story is mostly about Alice &amp; Claire, Jill will feature heavily and at any point may well be intimate with Claire, or possibly both. My idea of vampires is that as they are an evolutionary step up from human. I believe that animals, opposable thumbs not withstanding, have a better ability to fit in with each other and the world at large, than humans do. So my vampires share a few traits with the animal kingdom. Intimacy is one of those things.**

**Except K-mart. No sexy times for K-mart, on account of her being a child.**

**Many people have an idea of how vampires would appear and how they would behave. We nearly all of us, except that bloody Twilight woman, agree on many things so forgive me if you have seen these ideas in other fictions or Anne Rice or Dracula (Book, Film, TV series etc).**

**I will try to keep this updated at a fairly swift pace, though I have bills to pay and two rambunctious puppies that keep me busy.**

**Now that is all out of the way, are you sitting comfortably? Then let us begin.**

**Dedicated to Marmite.**

**Chapter 1**

"Carlos duck!"

Carlos didn't need to be told twice, he hit the deck as the bullets sprayed where his head had just been. He smiled at the woman in front of him, a smirking vision of death and destruction wielding her weapons with a skill un-matched by any on his team. He jumped back up to cover her back as they cleared the building all the way to the back entrance.

The back door came flying of it's hinges as two more burst through, weapons raised. Alice took a quick breath and clamped down the urge to shoot the newcomers.

"Careful blondie, hate to have to shoot you, shit ton of paperwork." Rain Ocampo stared down the sights of her automatic at Alice who raised her hands mockingly.

"You clear outside?" Alice asked the two.

"No, we came in cos it was cold." Rain sneered back at her.

Leon shook his head and moved further in to collect samples from the dead. Rain's contempt for Alice was no secret, he had no desire to be in the middle of two hyped up women armed to the teeth.

"Play nicely kiddies." Carlos smiled at the Latina woman hoping to defuse the tension. He clicked on the radio and called into HQ. "Tell command the site is clear, we are collecting samples and setting explosives now, request Evac for 15 minutes." He closed the phone and followed after Alice to help with the clean up.

Alice took some samples while Carlos was on the phone. As he walked over, she started placing explosives around the main support posts. "Ungh, I'm exhausted. 6 hours with this stench is enough to make anyone consider a career change."

Carlos laughed. "Well, that's it for this lot, time for some much needed time off. Wesker says there is nothing outstanding, we log this in back home, and I reckon were good for a few days off. You got anything planned?"

Alice looked up from her fusing. Her green eyes sparkling despite the grime she was covered in. "Bathing Carlos. I am going to bathe for 3 days straight until I no longer smell like one of them and give Rain the excuse she needs to 'accidentally' shoot me."

"Why do you think it's been so damn busy? This is the 4th site in as many days. You think it's spreading?"

Alice shook her head. "I don't know. I mean how can it spread? These sites were 100's of smile apart, nothing in between."

Carlos shrugged. "We have samples, the lab can tell us if there is anything weird right?"

"Maybe." Alice replied. "K, it's all done, lets get the others clear, hate to have to go through all that paperwork if Rain were accidentally blown up right?"

Carlos laughed again. "What is it with her?"

Alice looked at him. "She's a bitch? C'mon, let's clear out." She waited for Carlos to leave before picking up her samples and putting them in her own bag.

/*/*/*

"_The dog days are over, whoah, the dog days ah ah over..."_

Claire stood at the kitchen entrance, arms folded watching her young charge bounce around singing into her cutlery as she made a sandwich. The headphones covering the original sound left K-marts own less than stellar vocals free to bounce of the tiled surface of the kitchen at a boisterous level. Jill walked up behind Claire and started laughing at the would be American Idol contestant.

"She knows your here yet?"

Claire shook her head, "I don't know how that poor dog can stand to be here when she does this." She looked at the creature in question who seem oblivious to the ear splitting noise.

K-marts singing stopped and she finished with a flourish of her knife. Jill took the opportunity to burst into a vigorous applause that startled the young girl who spun around displacing the headphones.

"Jesus, how long have you been standing there?"

Claire smirked at her and K-mart glared back. "You're lucky I cant kill you." She pointed the peanut butter smeared knife at Claire. "You on the other hand.." She looked at Jill.

"You'd miss me too much." Jill laughed at her. "C'mon, grab the sandwich, lets go watch a movie."

K-mart looked to Claire. "You going out?"

Claire nodded. "For an hour or so, I wont be long."

K-mart picked up the plate and followed Jill to the lounge. She reached up as she past Claire and kissed her softly. "Be careful. OK?"

"Rembrandt can watch my back." She called the dog over.

"I wish you wouldn't take him when you go out, he doesn't like it, he's still a puppy you know?"

Claire looked at the giant hound and smirked. "Uh huh. You want me to go alone?" She teased. It always amused her that she had managed quite nicely for longer than she remembered, but despite her protests, K-mart thought the puppy would be a good backup, it was her winning argument for allowing him to stay after he got into some left over paint and re-decorated the hallway the first week he was there.

"Fine, but you better look after him." She moved into the lounge out of site.

Claire looked at the dog, a feral look passed between them, from one predator to another and the hound came to her. As soon as she left the building and turned into one of the many dark alleys of New York, she dropped the leash for collection when she got back and allowed the hound his freedom.

/*/*/*

Albert Wesker sat in his luxurious office watching the CCTV monitor in the testing labs. They should have been empty, the lab staff having long since left for the day, but his computer alerted him to the results being played back. He tutted to himself as he watched the lone blonde running results through the computers before grabbing the print outs and sneaking out. Shaking his head he pressed the button on his phone and waited for it to ring. When the voice came through the speaker he turned off the monitor and spoke. "It seems we have a small problem, I need you in my office." He hung up and sat back to wait. Ten minutes later a knock came at his door before it opened to reveal Rain Ocampo.

"It seems as though one of our little family is getting into places she doesn't belong. I need her taken care of."

Rain smiled for the first time that day. "Who?"

Wesker sighed. "Alice. See that it's done tonight. I'm counting on you not to leave a trace."

Rain smiled even wider. "No problem."

"One last thing. She has some paperwork on her that I need back. After you have dealt with it, check her apartment for any other company property. And bring her computer, just in case."

Rain closed the door behind her, still smiling.

/*/*/*

Claire didn't have to wait long, a lone gang banger approached her, smiling widely to show off his gold teeth. "Hey Red, you looking to have some fun tonight." He grabbed at his crotch.

Claire shook her head. "I've always hated that name." She was on him in a flash, before his hand could leave his genitals to protect himself. Pressing him against the filthy alley, she tipped her head back to expose her canines before biting down hard on his throat. His struggles came to a halt in seconds as his life drained out of him and into her. Claire let the body drop to the floor in front of her before casually taking his bandana and wiping her mouth. She looked to the corner where Rembrandt stood guard. Pulling a blade from her boot, she sliced roughly across the wound in his throat to cover the marks she had put there. She put the cloth in her front pocket and started to lift the body into the trash to be found long after she had left when a noise alerted her. She tilted her head to the sound and heard a gun chamber being loaded and a woman's voice. She dropped the body to the ground and jumped to the top of the wall to get a better look. She saw a blonde with blood matted hair laying on the floor desperately trying to get to her feet. She tried to speak to the dark woman hovering over her and was viciously kicked in the face before the gun was raised.

"That's the difference between you and I. I don't care, I follow orders. You should have done the same. So long Alice."

/*/*/*

Alice walked through the back streets toward her favourite take out. Wrapped up against the chill Autumn air she didn't hear anything until it was too late. A crack to the back of her head split the otherwise quiet night. She dropped to her knees, her vision swimming in and out of focus, she brought her hand from the back of her skull to see it covered in her own blood. She tried to spin around and face her attacker but the head wound made balance impossible. She crawled away and turned herself around to see Rain standing over her chambering a round.

"Rain, don't. The virus we found? They're ours. They were put there deliberately. By us!"

Over the Latina woman's shoulder she could see a red headed woman perched like a gargoyle on the top of wall.

Rain said something as she raised the gun, but Alice was too busy fighting consciousness and wondering why the red head was talking about dessert. As she sank into the blackness her final vision was of the red head almost flying across the alley as she took Rain off her feet into the fence behind them. From her fuzzy vantage it looked like the two women were making out. Her last thought was she didn't even know that Rain was gay.

/*/*/*

Claire felt around the back of the blondes skull, expecting her to be dead, she was startled when she moaned. Claire grabbed her phone and pressed speed dial.

"I have a small problem. Something interfered with my dinner date. Before I could dispose of him, I ran into some trouble." She listened to the panic on the other end while she grabbed the blonde woman's ID. "Shit. No, Jill, I'm OK." She moved to the dark woman and checked her pockets. "Fuck. Jill I need you to get down here. Bring Luther."

Ten minutes later Claire was explaining the problem to Jill while Luther dealt with the original body. She scooped Alice up into her arms and started walking away.

"What are you doing? She works for Umbrella and you want to what? Save her? Are you mad? What ever these too were doing to each other, does **not** involve you and neither should **you** involve you. Christ Claire, Umbrella? You cant have them anywhere near you!"

Claire kept walking. "I'll meet you at home shortly. I doubt she is going to live." She looked down at the unconscious blonde sadly. "I can't just leave her here. The hospital is a block or two over. I'm going to leave her there and head back."

Jill looked at the remaining body and shook her head. She looked to the watching dog still standing guard. "This isn't going to end well, you know that right."

Rembrandt looked away with a large yawn as though it didn't matter to him one way or another.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – Waking the Dead.**

Claire walked back into her apartment, she hung her jacket up and moved into the kitchen.

"Where's K-mart?" She asked Jill.

"Sleeping. I brought the dog back and told her you had to visit a friend in hospital. "

Claire nodded, distracted by the image of the blonde she had left in the arms of emergency room staff.

"_Thank you."_

Their eyes had met and Claire was certain something passed between them, though she was unsure what it was.

"Talking of, what were you thinking? Wesker can not know you are in New York."

Luther looked up from his newspaper. "She's right, the last thing we need is a run in with him."

Claire dropped into the chair next to him and fixed herself a coffee from the carafe on the table. "Wesker already knows I am here. Of that I have no doubt."

Jill turned paler than normal. "You cant know that."

"He knows I am here, the same way that I know where he is. Wesker wont bother us, it's not in his interests."

"Putain du bordel de merde! Faut pas deconner? Not in his interest?" Jill stood waving her arms around wildly.

Claire used the coffee cup to hide a smile at Jill's outburst. Only when she was truly agitated did her native and often sour french come to the forefront.

Luther had no such decorum and laughed out loud.

"It's not funny Luther."

The large man stood up and took her into his arms. "No, it is not. But as Claire said, better we know where he is as I am sure he feels the same about us. Wesker is doing what he always does, soaking in his power. He wont want to do anything that will upset that. Calm down cherie."

"What did you do with her?" Jill asked the seated Claire.

"I took her to the hospital, she came around as I handed her over. I don't believe she saw anything that happened after that woman kicked her in the face."

"_Thank you" _ The words came easily to her memory and she pushed them away.

"And the other?"

"I took her up north, buried her," Luther spoke up. "She wont be found."

"I'm going to get some sleep. Thank you, both of you." Claire stood and walked away to her room.

Luther stood up as well. "I'm going to head home and clean off. Calm down and get some sleep. I'm only a few floors down if you need me." He kissed Jill gently and walked out the door.

Jill finished clearing up the kitchen rather than dealing with it in the morning. She missed the days where domestic help could be relied on to not ask 100's of questions. For the last 30 years they had dispensed with any external help and taken to living a more down to earth existence. Just the 3 of them. 4, when K-mart turned up. Though Jill was sure that the girl had no idea where the dishwasher was. She smiled as she set the program to run and walked to Claire's room rather than her own apartment on the floor below.

"Are you sleeping yet?" She asked as she moved in the room.

Claire responded by opening the sheets. "Come on, let it go, get some sleep. The blonde is probably dead and no one saw us with her. You disposed of the other one?"

Jill sank into the sheets and sighed. "Yes, I took him to the oven."

Claire shivered. "Don't call it that in front of K, she may never eat again."

The two women laughed softly before curling up together in sleep.

*/*/*/

"Sir, we have some footage near to where Ocampo's phone was lasted showing on the map." The technician handed the chip to Wesker and waited for instructions.

Wesker leaned back in his chair watching a slight woman looking around before a large black man came into view with what appeared to be a large sack over one shoulder. He dropped it into the trunk of a large town car before going out of sight. A minute later he appeared again with another, dropping it into a similar car. The woman got into one car followed by a large dog whilst the black man drove in the opposite direction.

Wesker smiled, showing his impressive canines. The lab technician tried to swallow at the sight, horrified when it was audible in the silent room.

"Solomon Luther and Gilles duCouer, now what would bring you to interfering in my business?" He turned back to the lab tech. "Ms Ocampo's phone is no doubt switched off, have the remote tracking activated, when you find it, have Dr Isaacs notified immediately, he knows what to do."

The lab tech tried his hardest not to run out of the room.

*/*/*/

Alice gradually opened her eyes, surprised when she felt the soft mattress under her and more surprised to see Carlos sitting next to the bed.

"Hey sleepy head." He smiled at her.

She tried to smile back but her entire left side screamed at the movement. "Ungh, what the fuck hit me?"

Carlos turned serious. "You've been out for a couple of days. What do you remember?"

Alice tried to think but it was all a blur. "Rain, she tried to kill me. Why would she try to kill me?"

Carlos shrugged. "She's a bitch? Wesker says that Rain has been letting the t-virus loose in various places. He thinks that she knew you figured it out and went after you."

Alice looked alarmed. "Wesker? You've seen him?"

Carlos nodded. "He came here while you were out. Had the room upgraded, made sure that the hospital knew who you worked for and demanded nothing but the best. No sign of Rain though. Wesker has people all over the city looking for her."

Alice remembered the red haired woman that carried her to the hospital. She was about to tell Carlos about her interceding on Rain's murder party when the door to her room opened.

"Alice, good to see you awake. How are you?"

Alice grimaced and try to cover it with a smile. "I've had better days sir."

Wesker stood ram rod straight at the end of the bed. "As Mr Olivera has probably told you, we think Rain was working for a third party and was releasing strains of the virus in the country side, for what purpose, we remain unsure. When you are at full strength, we can look into it further. I am sure your insights would be invaluable."

Alice was having trouble with her fake smile and could only hope it would be overlooked as discomfort. Rain was many things, but smart enough to work covertly with a third party while removing viruses from the labs was not one of them. Rain was muscle, through and through, it did not extend to her brain, that muscle Alice was sure remained mostly unused.

Wesker left the hospital leaving an enthusiastic Carlos behind. "Look at you, getting the big cheese down here personally. You're gonna have to start leaving an apple on his desk soon you know?"

Alice smiled for real this time and reached over to slap her partner.

*/*/*/

Two hours north, a cavalcade of vehicles bearing the umbrella logo pulled up in the middle of the woods near Black Rock. A team of soldiers were digging at a fresh grave while a tall man barked commands to his team. "Is the serum ready to go? We have one shot at this, I want 12 units of blood ready to push into her, the serum hooked up to her heart ready on my mark."

Various white coats were frantically making notes on charts and preparing the equipment when the call when out.

"She's out, ready when you are Dr Isaacs."

Samuel Isaacs gave the nod. "Hook the serum up first, start pushing the blood through."

There was a silence across the woods as they waited to see if the untested serum would work.

Isaacs kept his eye on the levels and the steady graph in front of him. When the numbers lined up he turned around and yelled. "Do it now!"

There was dead silence as all waited, the machines started a slow steady beep swiftly reaching a crescendo before a deep gasp resounded against the trees.

"You did it, it worked!" One of the technicians called out.

Dr Isaacs walked over to the furious looking, dirt covered woman now breathing freely. "Project Rain, welcome back."

The Latina woman looked him in the eye before growling out. "I'm gonna fucking kill her."

*/*/*/

A month later, Alice was in the company gym working up a sweat. It has been the Dr's orders from Umbrella that she re-qualify her fitness before joining her team in the field again. As she beat relentlessly against the bag she heard footsteps behind her.

"Looking good there Alice. Did the bag insult you?" Carlos laughed.

"Actually it said something about your mother and while it was true, I felt it needed a lesson in manners. Care to take his place?" Alice stopped and peeled her hand wraps off.

"Much as I would love to, Wesker wants to see you. His people found out who Rain was working for, he said it was your return to work mission."

Alice raised an eyebrow at Carlos. She wanted to share her doubt with her partner of 3 years but since she had been cold cocked by Rain, she didn't want to put him in any danger.

"Tell him I will be right up, need a shower before I go out anywhere."

Carlos nodded and walked to the exit.

*/*/*/

Alice stood outside of her bosses office. The secretary put down her phone and looked at the nervous blonde. "Mr Wesker will see you now."

She took a deep breath and moved inside the palatial office.

"Alice, I hear from the medical staff that you are back to active duty levels."

Alice nodded. When she came round in the hospital, Carlos had told her that her apartment had been ransacked. All her proof of the outbreaks was gone. Alice knew that in the short time she had been gone from her home before Rain attacked her there was not enough time to get to her home and tear it apart. Which meant that someone else was involved and whilst she may have always found her employer creepy, her hair was almost standing on end in his presence.

"We have a mission flying out tonight, it will be the first since I was attacked."

"About that. I have arranged for Leon to go in your absence. I require your help on another matter."

Alice tilted her head at him. "He's been cleared then?"

"Indeed, there was very little doubt about his allegiance. Rain was working with someone outside of Umbrella. We had our suspicions that there was a competitor out there, now we know for sure. Normally I think competition in business I healthy, but in the work we do, there needs to be certain standards met. This is no business for people that put money and status first."

Alice had to stop herself from looking around at the ostentatious room with its myriad of Fortune 500 cover shots of her boss.

"So who is it and how are we going to deal with it."

Wesker pushed a photograph across the desk to Alice. She looked down and only her training stopped the gasp from leaving her lungs. The photograph was taken at a distance but clearly showed a red haired woman. Alice memories from that night were fuzzy at best, but she remembered waking up in the neon glow of the hospital emergency entrance in the arms of a red haired woman as she was handed off to the scurrying staff.

"_Thank you"_

And the woman had just looked at her almost in confusion as their eyes had met.

Wesker handed over a hand written note with an address on it. "I have it on good authority that she will be alone tonight. Her security detail will not be with her."

"You want me to bring her in?" Alice queried.

"I want you to kill her."

Alice took the note and the photograph, nodding as she left the room.

*/*/*/

Claire lounged in her chair, the soft sounds of piano music playing in the background. The apartment was quiet, no clicking of nails from Rembrandt moving around. No yelling between K-mart and Jill, none of Luther's booming laughter. She tipped her head back swirling the expensive golden liquid in her glass as she got lost in the music.

A silent red light started flashing near the entertainment center, Claire picked up her phone and quickly checked the security settings. The fire escape entrance had been breached. Luther had overseen the security and Claire was aware that those locks could only be broken with a significantly high skill set. She sat back and waited as the unmistakeable sounds of footsteps approached from the hallway.

The door slowly pushed open as Alice walked into the fire lit room. She locked eyes with the reclining red head and that feeling from before came back and landed like a weight on her chest.

"_Thank you."_

Claire looked at the blonde woman. Noting the twin guns at her hips and the blade protruding from an ankle holster. "You look better than you did when we first met."

"I've been sent here to kill you."

"Wesker sent you?"

Alice heart dropped. If this woman knew of Wesker, then there was some truth to his accusations. "He did."

Claire put her glass down on the table. "I see. Tell me, what could you have possibly done that would make Wesker want you dead?"

Alice face scrunched up into a mask of confusion.

"He sent you to kill me, so I can only assume that he wishes you dead."

The unarmed woman sat alone in her apartment with no visible weapons and no one to help her. The more Alice stood there, the more she knew she didn't want to do this. She laughed nervously. "What? You don't think I could take you?"

Claire smirked at her and before Alice realised she had moved, Claire was behind Alice with Alice's own ankle blade at her throat. A soft voice whispered across her ear, threatening to take Alice's feet from under her. "Do you think you can 'take me'?"

*/*/*/

**StarrH – A tough act to follow. RE characters are so much fun to play with, but honestly there is only so much you can do with a zombie apocalypse and re-writing the time lines. I wanted to write an AU that has at it's heart the elements of the movies, but set somewhere completely different. Thank ye kindly for the review, glad you are enjoying yourself so far :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Alice reply was cut short by the front door banging closed and a voice yelling out. "Honey we're home!"

Jill walked into the lounge to be confronted with Claire running the blade across Alice's throat. "Why is the woman you assured me was dead standing in our lounge?"

Claire chuckled softly and pulled the blade away, handing it back to a bewildered Alice. "I said she was probably dead."

"Glad we cleared that up. Why is the woman that is probably dead standing in our lounge?"

Claire moved back to her lounger, picking up her drink and swallowing. Her eyes never left Alice. "She popped around to kill me."

K-mart walked in with the ever present shadow of her dog. "So no coffee then?" She dropped down next to Claire, pulling her feet underneath her.

Alice finally snapped at the ridiculous situation. "Who are you people?"

"Wesker didn't tell you?" Claire asked her.

"Wesker told me that Rain was working for you and spreading the virus deliberately. When I found out, you ordered Rain to kill me."

"Rain is the one you killed?" Jill asked

Alice's eyes nearly bugged out of her skull. "You killed her? In that alley? I saw you press her against the wall before I passed out, what did you do to her?"

For the first time Claire gave her a full smile, proudly showing off her pronounced canines.

Alice subconsciously rested her hand on her weapons. "That's impossible! How is that possible?" She looked to Jill, K-mart and Luther. "You're vampires?"

Luther shook his head and walked over to the confused blonde. "Not all of us. Luther West, glad to see you made it back."

Alice shook his hand on auto pilot.

"This is Jill Valentine, K-mart and Claire Redfield."

Alice's legs finally gave out and she dropped into the leather chair behind her. "How is this possible? I've killed dozens of vampires, they are just shells, they cant speak. I don't understand."

Claire took pity on her. "Perhaps coffee would be a good idea?" She nudged K-mart back up. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours." She winked at Alice. When no sound was forthcoming from her, she continued on. "You work for Umbrella. After the second world war, un-natural creatures started emerging from eastern Europe, thought to be the result of Hitlers chemical warfare program. Zombies, Vampires, men that bore more resemblance to beasts than to actual men, alien like monsters that crawled on 4 human legs, titans three times the size of any human. Umbrella was built using elite forces trained to seek out and destroy these abominations for a not inconsiderable fee. The things you hunted were not in fact the result of chemical weaponry, they were deliberately infected using viruses produced in Umbrella laboratories by the man you now know as Albert Wesker."

K-mart came back in and gave Alice a large coffee and a larger brandy which she gulped back in one hit.

"Careful, that was a gift from Napoleon."

Alice looked at the glass then back to Jill. "We had a thing." She smirked.

"So you're a vampire as well?" She croaked out.

"No." Luther picked up the tale. "Jill and I are quite mortal, we are just a little older than you are."

"Are we telling her all this cos we are gonna kill her?" Jill spoke up again.

Alice glared at the brunette. Claire simply laughed, a lilting sound that drew Alice back to her. "No, I think Alice has died quite enough this month. Wesker sent her here to die, I believe this is his opening gambit. He obviously believes he is powerful enough to make another run at me."

"Why does Wesker want you dead?" Alice asked her.

"He doesn't want me dead cariad, he wants what I have."

Jill's eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hairline at the term of endearment, Alice it would seem had no idea what she just said.

"Wesker wants to be a vampire?" Alice shook her head at the ridiculous notion.

Luther burst out laughing. "You really don't know do you?" He asked Alice. "Albert Wesker is a vampire."

Alice spat her coffee out narrowly missing the dog.

*/*/*/

"Mr Wesker? Dr Isaacs asked that you join him in the labs. Project Rain is ready for inspection." The lab tech nervously played with his pen, being sure to keep himself on the farthest side of the door.

"Wonderful, lets go and see how our latest project is fairing." He strode past the tech, into the corridor.

Deep in the bowels of Umbrella corp, the high tech labs were situated, far from prying eyes. Here where the experiments that would have Wesker hunted down like a dog were carried out. He moved smoothly into the largest room, his eyes lighting up at the site of a living breathing Rain Ocampo, submerged in fluid, hooked up to numerous machines monitoring her progress.

Samuel Isaacs looked over Wesker's shoulder. "Did you bring Dr Johnson down with you?"

Wesker smiled and offered a polite cough before running his fingers across his lips. "I do apologise, nervous people do make me hungry."

Isaacs looked away, not before noticing the remaining people in white coats straighten up and affect a more confident posture. "Project Rain is showing tremendous progress. No brain activity for 5 hours that we can tell, it hasn't impeded her transition."

"When will she be ready?" Wesker moved around the central tube.

"Two days, three at most."

"Tell me as soon as you have a time line. The sooner we take out her compatriots, the sooner she will be alone."

Isaacs nodded. "Why does it have to be this to remove them? You have an entire army at your disposal. Surely there are less expensive ways to do it."

"They are not immortal, but by feeding from her, they have assets that make it almost impossible to remove them. They are faster, stronger, heightened senses. They would spot an assassin before they got close. They have only to survive long enough for her to turn up. Then I would lose the entire army I sent after them. No my dear Dr, this is the fastest and safest way to remove the thief and the slave leaving her alone. Keep me informed." He turned to leave. "Oh, have security clean up after your lab tech."

And with that, he left.

*/*/*/

"So what do we do with her?" Jill asked as though Alice wasn't in the room.

"If Wesker sent her to die, you can be certain he has other people outside watching, we need to get rid of her body."

Luther stood up. "I'll get one of your suitcases. We can take it out the front, take the car to the oven."

K-mart looked up. "What's the oven?"

Claire walked past, she leaned down and placed a kiss on the young girl. "Perhaps you could entertain our guest for a while. We wont be long."

Alice jumped up. "I cant stay here. I have to go."

Claire looked at her quizzically. "Go where? Wesker wants you dead, will assume you are dead. You have no where you can go. If I didn't kill you, I can assure you he will make your death quite painful trying to find out why." She walked over to her. Alice found herself mesmerised. "You are quite safe here. Nothing can hurt you."

Alice nodded and found herself leaning in to Claire quite against her will. Claire's hand moved up and ran gently down the side of Alice's face.

"It's time." Luther called from the door.

Claire dropped her hand as though she had no idea what it was doing and walked swiftly out the door toward a smirking Jill Valentine. "Something you would like to share with the group?"

Claire growled at her.

*/*/*/

**Apologies for the short chapter. I want to try and post daily cause it's annoying when you try to get into a story and there are gaps. Today however was spent with the craziest client that ever drank from the crazy fountain so I didn't get started till quite late. And I have now been informed that one of my dogs thought rolling around in the mud was a grand idea, she and most of the mud she rolled in, are on their way home *sigh***

**katgensen93: I'm going to go into the backstory of Jill and Luther shortly. Claire isn't NOT French lol, its complicated. Thanks for the review :)**

**angelsgir: My imagination usually gets me into trouble, it's good to let it run wild occasionally don't you think ;)**

**aliceabernathy96: Thank ye kindly. Alexis is a tough act to follow. Alice is nearly always the dominant character, sadly switching them to Claire is easy for Claire, writing Alice as less than woman in charge is proving slightly harder.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Why is Wesker trying to kill me?" Alice asked the seated K-mart. "And how the fuck are they walking around and talking?"

K-mart scrunched up her face. "Who?"

Alice jumped up and started pacing around the room. "Them! The vampires. Vampires aren't, well, them, they don't act like humans." She turned to stare at the young blonde. "And you? What are you?"

Rembrandt stood between them and growled, low enough to be heard. "You need to calm down. He takes his job as guardian very seriously." Kmart took Alice's hand and led her back to the couch. "It seems you are under Claire's protection, so let me tell you a little about my dysfunctional family."

They sat down side by side, Kmart looked to the ceiling as though pondering where to start first.

"My name isn't K-mart." She gave a self deprecating laugh. "Obvious huh? Anyway, I'm 14 years old. About two years ago, Claire and I ran into each other in Texas, that was home originally. I was hiding out in the park, avoiding my step-father. Claire dropped out of a tree behind some guy. Next thing I know, she has him up against the tree, I couldn't see what she was doing, until she turned around. She had blood on her face, she was wiping it off and she saw me. It's kinda funny, I wasn't scared or anything. I mean, I should have been right? But she just looked so sad when she saw me. Next thing I know, 2 other guys come running in, waving guns in the air, I yelled at her to look out. One of the shots hit her in the shoulder and she looked really pissed. One of the bullets hit me in the leg, I didn't look pissed, honestly I screamed like a girl." She laughed and picked up her soda.

"Claire killed them. She shot one, the other, not really sure, but he didn't get up. She came over to me, picked me up and said she would take me to a hospital. That scared me more than what she might have been. My step-father..." She looked up and Alice could see the tears forming. "He wasn't a nice man. He hurt me. All the time. I already had bruises from the last time, I was terrified of what he would do when he found out I was out, I supposed to be at home, waiting for when he got back from the bar. Claire said either I go to the hospital, or she would have to kill me as well. I said it didn't matter, if she took me there, I would be dead anyway. Claire asked me my name, I refused to tell her. She carried me to the other side of the park where Jill and Luther were waiting. She handed me off to Luther who field dressed my leg while she spoke to Jill. Claire said I would be staying with them until I was well enough to go home. I never went back, I've been with them ever since." She smiled at Alice.

"Your parents didn't report you missing?"

K-mart shrugged. "My mom died a few years back. My grandparents didn't take me in, so I was left with my step-father. When Claire found out what he was doing to me, she killed him."

"So why do they call you K-mart?" Alice asked.

"I refused to tell them my name, I had a K-mart t-shirt on, Jill started calling me K-mart and it kinda stuck."

"So what's your real name?"

"Eh, I never liked it, seemed like time for a change."

"K-mart how are they vampires? Do you even know what a vampire is? I mean apart from the movies and the stories."

K-mart laughed. "Of course. And they aren't all vampire. Claire is the only one."

"But she isn't like the vampires that umbrella kills, I've killed dozens of them, they are just..." Alice searched for a way to describe them. "..animals. They don't speak, they don't have sentience, they just feed and sleep. Dracula? That's just a myth. Stoker spent time in Europe and came across the stories of people coming back to life and romanticized it."

"Vampires have existed far longer than Umbrella has been hunting them. I don't know the original story, Claire wont tell me, but I know she is super old!"

Alice couldn't help laughing at the description of Claire being super old. To Alice she looked like a 30 year old woman. While Alice got lost in exactly what Claire looked like she was startled back to reality when K-mart burst out laughing.

"You are so totally into her!"

Alice blushed bright red. "She's a vampire. My job, is to kill them, regardless of what they look like."

"Uh huh. Well before you go all Buffy on her, you want to hear about Jill and Luther?"

"I want to know how vampires can walk around pretending to be human."

"You're gonna have to ask Claire about that, I'm kinda fuzzy on the details. I can tell you this. Claire said she never killed someone that didn't live in her world."

"Other vampires?"

"Predators."

*/*/*/

"You have that same look on your face you know?" Jill remarked in the stifling silence.

Claire grunted in the back seat.

"You know the one don't you Luther?"

The large black man smiled to himself as he drove. Antagonizing Claire was often Jill's favourite game. "Oh I know that look."

"When was the last time she got that look? You remember?"

"Hmm, let me think." Luther played along. "Was it when she adopted K-mart?"

"I don't want to adopt Alice." Claire ground out.

"Oh I'm quite sure you don't." Jill laughed. "I've seen this look on you twice before. Both times, it didn't end well."

"She seems nice. Trying to kill you not withstanding." Luther offered.

"I'm only doing this to find out what Wesker is up to. You of all people should be more concerned by that."

"Tsk, mon cul." Jill scoffed at her.

Claire sighed and rested her head on the back of the seat.

"Is she responding to you?" Jill asked quietly.

Claire remembered the first time she held Alice when she thought she was dying. _"Thank you."_ That feeling that shot through her, she had to force her body not to shake. "I think she is."

"Well.." Jill shifted until she was facing Claire in the back. "At least she is familiar with what you are."

"Hardly, all she knows are those half breeds and she was trained to kill those. And those other experiments of Wesker's." She sighed. "What the hell is he doing. Drawing attention to us this way. He creates these creatures, lets them loose, hunts them down publicly, someone is going to put things together one day. I think Alice realised what he is doing, others must be wondering the same thing."

"Wesker is doing what he has always done. He thinks he is a God." Luther offered from the front.

"And what am I to do?" Claire asked plaintively.

"What you have always done. Avoid him." Luther told her.

Claire opened her phone and dialed from memory. It answered on the third ring.

"Ms Redfield, it is Redfield these days is it not? Now how do you come to have my private number?" Wesker spoke smoothly.

Claire flicked the call to speaker. "The same way that you knew who was calling I would imagine."

Wesker laughed, a sound that had Jill coming out of her skin.

"Touche. And what brings you to me today?"

"I'm about to dispose of the gift you sent." Claire answered him.

"Gift? I don't recall sending you anything."

"Your assassin. Alice Abernathy. Ring any bells?"

"I was told she didn't turn up for work yesterday."

"She wont be turning up tomorrow either. Why are you trying to kill me Albert?"

Wesker hummed on the other end of the phone. "I assure you, she didn't come on my orders. Did she tell you why she was there?"

Claire shook her head at his blatant lies. "I didn't give her the chance."

"She's dead then? Odd, you kept the last assassin that claimed to come from me. Perhaps this one wasn't to your taste. How is the lovely Gille duCouer?"

Claire had to move quickly before Jill could grab the phone and throw it. "Don't call me that. Fils de pute. Nique ta mere."

Claire was certain Jill would have spat had they not been in the car.

"I see she is well, although certainly the years haven't tamed her any. Regardless of what my former employee may have decided to do, she did it without my help."

Claire hung up the phone before he could say anything further. "I fear Luther, the days of avoiding Wesker may be coming to a close." She opened the window and threw the phone out into the empty street.

*/*/*/

Kmart walked up to Claire as soon as she shut the door behind her. "You look tired." She moved into Claire's open arms and held her. "Where are the others?"

Claire pressed her lips to her young friends hair. "Downstairs. I think they wanted me to be able to talk to Alice without them around to freak her out."

K-mart laughed. "Yes, I'm sure that's what it was." She shrieked into Claire's shoulder as the vampire started to lift her up.

"Et tu K-mart? Et tu? Where is our reluctant house guest anyway?"

"She's in the spare room. She's a little confused."

"What did you tell her? About us?"

"Not much, I thought it might be better coming from you."

Claire nodded. "You going to sleep now?"

"In a minute. Is everything OK Claire? Are you in danger?"

Claire pulled her in tighter. "Everything's fine K, but to be safe, don't go out without Luther and Rembrandt until we find out what this is all about. It might just be prudent to move again. I'm not sure for now, but please don't go out alone."

K-mart pulled away, leaning up to place a kiss on Claire's lips. "I promise. Go talk to Alice. I think she likes you." She whispered the last part to Claire's rolling eyes.

Claire stopped by the kitchen to pick up a glass of wine. She flicked off the light and made her way to the open door of the room that Alice was staying in.

She waited at the door frame and watched as Alice sat quietly reading one of the many books that lined the shelves. Claire felt something moving in her chest that she thought long since dead. The vision of Alice's battered and broken body in her arms caused her to cough slightly.

Alice looked up, dropping her book and reaching for a weapon. For some reason this action seemed to make the red head look sad and Alice instantly regretted putting that expression on her face.

"I'm no threat to you, but I do think we need to talk at length if you are able."

Alice put her hands back down and nodded silently.

Claire stepped over the guarding dog and sat in the chair at the end of the bed.

*/*/*/

**Katgensen93 – I like theory's, expound away. Your idea might be better than mine lol.**

**Anglesgir – A little trouble never hurt anyone. Wait... never mind. Glad you are still here.**

**Aliceabernathy96 – I have auto complete on my computer, I have to be really careful now cos every time I write the word "Alice" your name comes up. Thank you for your comments about Alice's submissive nature, I'm about to write her in more depth, so we shall see how believable it comes out :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Why does Wesker want you dead?"

Alice shifted on the bed to face the woman who seemed to have both saved and damned her. "You seem to know more than I do, you tell me."

Claire sighed. "I understand what this must be like for you.."

Alice jumped up, reaching for her weapons. "How could you possibly understand what this must be like!" She pulled her gun out and put it to Claire's heart. "My life is over. Wesker is never going to let me go and for some reason he has decided it is your fault and I want to know why."

Claire didn't react on having Alice's loaded weapon against her chest. She noticed however that Alice's arm was not as steady as it should be. "My fault? Or is it yours?" She asked gently.

Alice lowered her arm and took a deep, shuddering breath. "You're right. It's my fault." She sat down and let her weapon fall to the ground. "I'm a captain, well, the equivalent, in Wesker's private army. It was my responsibility to look after my team. Knowing what we faced, planning, training. I was good at it as well, one of the best he has. I paid attention. I know some of them thought it was nothing more than a giant video game, but I did it out of a sense of duty. There were discrepancies, the virus we hunted, it was nicknamed the T-virus. Timeless. The people that were infected were zombies. They had no cognitive functions, but they couldn't die, no matter how much they fed. The virus would run rampant unchecked, so we were dispatched as soon as an outbreak or possible outbreak was reported." Alice reached over to her coffee, her mouth dry from talking. She ran her hand through her hair, grimacing when she realised she was in need of a shower, sighing when she realised that had left her apartment with nothing but the clothes she wore and her phone and even that had been taken when Claire and the others took her 'body' to be disposed of. Luther had even found a bio chip in her arm that had to be removed and destroyed. She supposed it was inserted during the various medical booster jabs they all received.

Claire sat patiently waiting for whatever was distracting the blonde. She watched Alice mentally going through a number of emotions before she started to talk again.

"That virus was so contagious, when it became common knowledge that it existed, people were rightfully terrified. But you know what? Not once did we get sent out to a false alarm. That bothered me. I mean surely there should have been a hundred calls a day claiming that an outbreak was starting. Every time we went out, it was the real deal. The other thing that had me wondering started recently, we were sent out to places, two, three, four days in a row, each time a different place, all within helicopter range and nothing in between. How the hell was it getting to these places and leaving nothing in the hundreds of miles between?"

Claire realised that Alice was asking her so she offered her thoughts. "You said they didn't have cognitive functions, but I assume they were mobile. Perhaps they spread it that way?"

Alice laughed. "Have you ever seen one?"

Claire shook her head.

"They aren't exactly spry. They just shuffle toward were they are going. At best they have a burst of speed when they get very close to a fresh food source, but none of them are sprinting several hundred miles across open ground without being seen. No. It didn't make sense to me. We took samples, for the labs, so they could check, what ever they checked, but I had a feeling me bringing up the subject wouldn't be well received, so I took samples of my own. The night you found me in that alley, I had run them through the machines and found out they were the same virus. The exact same strand. Supposedly, all the samples we took were designed to find out patient zero, the starting point. The samples I checked all came from the same one. So either one person was acting as a carrier or more likely, it was being placed there deliberately."

"And you took this to Wesker?" Claire asked as Alice got up to move around.

Alice shook her head. "I didn't have the chance. Rain tried to take me out that night. I never really thanked you for that did I." She smiled at the redhead, surprised to see her blushing.

"Don't mention it. So how did you find out it was apparently this Rain woman that was behind it all?"

"Wesker came to visit me in hospital shortly after I regained consciousness. He told me that he found out Rain was stealing the virus for a third party. When she found out I was onto her, she tried to kill me."

"But you didn't believe him? Why?"

"You had to meet Rain to understand why. I think she joined up so she could kill things legally. She was a good soldier, but not the kind of person that could come up with a scheme like that, with or without a third party. Plus how did he know that Rain was onto me or that I had anything to have someone onto me about? The only way that made sense is if _he_ knew that I had found something and if he wanted me dead for that, then he must have been behind it. Plus he's kinda creepy if I'm honest."

Claire couldn't help herself, she started laughing. Alice again found herself drawn to the sound, strangely pleased that she had been the cause of it.

Alice sat back down. "So that's my story. Didn't you promise to 'show me yours' at some point?"

Claire looked at her with so much intensity that Alice wanted to crawl across the space between them. She nervously checked her limbs to see if they had stayed where they should. Then she nervously checked Claire to see if she noticed. Judging by the smirk she was wearing, Alice had a feeling she did.

"What would you like to know?"

"How are you a vampire? We hunted T-virus outbreaks, another program was labeled Titan and then the Striga virus. I guess they didn't want to call it a vampire virus, I mean that does sound a little ridiculous."

"Call it what you will, but the creatures you killed are half breeds. It takes two vampires to create a third. It's the ultimate in population control really. Vampires don't trust each other, certainly not enough to get close enough to make a third. If one tries to turn another, the likelihood of them being one of these half breeds? Let's just say I have never heard of it working."

"So who made you?"

Claire sighed and finished off her wine. "Do you believe in God Alice?"

Alice looked at her sceptically. "Not really, I mean I like to think there might be a bigger plan, something better after we die, but an actual Deity, no, I don't. Are you telling me that's where you come from?" She laughed nervously.

Claire smiled at her, showing off her impressive teeth. "And if I was?" She responded.

Alice instinctively moved her hand to her throat causing Claire to laugh again.

"Relax, you are quite safe here." She leaned over and gently took Alice's hand into her own. "At least you are no longer reaching for your weapons."

Alice was yet again struck by how badly she wanted to climb across the ever decreasing gap between them.

"Perhaps that is a conversation for another day? You should get some sleep. Jill will be by in the morning to talk to you about anything you might need. Just let her know what you need and she will procure it for you." Claire stood up to leave.

Alice rose as the same time rather than release the hold Claire hand on her hands.

"Everything you need for now you will find in your bathroom. I noticed you trying to discreetly sniff yourself earlier."

Alice felt her face light up, her eyes widened in horror.

Claire leaned forward until their faces were inches apart. Alice was both terrified that Claire was going to bite her and disappointed when Claire simply rested her cheek against Alice's hair.

"You needn't worry cariad, I assure you that you smell perfectly fine." And with that she took the last of Alice's emotional overload.

"Good night Alice, sleep well."

Alice didn't remember laying down to sleep, but it must have been before Claire had even closed the door.

*/*/*/

Bacon.

Definitely bacon.

It took Alice a few seconds to realise where she was, when understanding kicked in, she groaned and covered her eyes with both hands. The weight of the last twenty fours hours landed squarely on her chest and threatened to crush her.

But on the upside, there was definitely bacon nearby.

Usually Alice woke up in time to grab a protein bar or a yoghurt before rushing into work and the latest catastrophe. She contemplated taking a quick shower then remembered Claire's words from last night. A warm and unfamiliar feeling made its presence known in her stomach, this time she couldn't blame the bacon. It had been a long time since she had felt the stirings of desire, with everything happening currently, Alice couldn't help thinking that perhaps there was a God and he was certainly having fun at her expense.

She got out of bed and figured if she was only going to put the same clothes on, she could leave the shower for now.

Besides, bacon.

She followed her nose to where she assumed the kitchen was. Jill was seated next to K-mart while Luther was cooking up a storm on the large range. "Good morning." She offered from the door way.

"I told you, bacon will get anyone up." Luther spoke first. "Take a seat Alice, food will be up shortly."

K-mart patted a space on the table across from where she sat with Jill. "Hi. Claire had to go out and run a few errands. She told us to answer any questions you had and she specifically told Jill to play nicely." She beamed up at the blonde.

Alice found her smile contagious and took the offered seat. "Thank you. I don't remember the last time I slept this late, although I was up rather late last night."

Jill leered across the table at her. "Oh do tell!"

Alice found herself blushing again, annoyed that she hadn't been this out of sorts since high school. "We were talking, just, you know."

K-mart laughed. "Of course she knows, what she doesn't know is what play nicely means. Don't make me tell Claire." She warned.

Jill smirked at Alice. "OK, so seeing as you were sent over to meet your demise and didn't bother packing for a long stay, Claire wants me to go out and pick up some stuff for you." She squeezed Alice's shoulder as she walked past. "I'm truly sorry this happened to you, for what its worth, I know exactly how you feel."

"Wesker sent you to kill Claire as well?" Alice mocked.

"Yes actually." Jill laughed. "Although it was a long time ago."

Alice looked at her in surprise. "How old are you?"

"Guess! How old do I look?" Jill did a little twirl around the kitchen.

Luther placed a plate piled with food in front of Alice. "You'll have to excuse her, she never gets a chance to do this."

"How about you Luther? Did Wesker try to kill you as well?" Alice asked as she started to eat.

The big man sat down opposite to her and started passing over condiments. "Actually I never met Wesker until after I met Claire. I was a slave. I ran away, two of the slavers people caught up with me, and..." He made a hanging gesture.

Alice nearly coughed up her breakfast. "You're dead?"

Luther burst out laughing. "No, though I did get a nasty rope burn." He moved his sweater aside and showed Alice a 6 inch burn mark around his neck. "Thankfully Claire was passing through the area. She took care of them and cut me down. That was 1789."

Alice stayed completely still, her fork half way to her mouth.

"My only dealings with Wesker have been through Claire. He likes to taunt me though, the only name I remember is Luther. When I traveled with Claire, she said I should pick a second name. She said we were heading west, so that's what I took, Luther West." He made a grand bow causing K-mart to laugh. "Wesker refers to me as Solomon Luther, he seems to get some amusement from it." He shrugged.

"1789?" Alice still hadn't moved. "How is that possible?"

Jill came back in the room with a pen and paper. "Claire can not make us like she is, did she explain about half breeds?" At Alice's nod she continued. "What she can do, is keep us alive. But we are not immortal, we can die, but we don't age."

"And Claire? Can she die?"

Jill turned a hard look on Alice. "Claire has feeling about people, she has only been wrong twice. When she first met Luther, she knew he wouldn't betray her. She gave me the same chance. Now she is offering it to you."

Alice raised her hands. "I didn't mean, I don't, I just wanted, look I appreciate that you are both 200 years old and you have had a chance to get used to things, but until a few hours ago, I was living in a loft conversion with a great view, the occasional social visit and a wine rack, mostly I was out of town killing things, probably like you, we never stopped to ask. It was shoot first, don't ask later. How many people like you did I kill?" Alice looked distraught.

"There are none like us, none that I know of." Claire walked into the room placing a hand on Alice's shoulder. "Didn't I ask you to play nicely?" She chided Jill.

"I'm sorry Alice, I have had a long time to come to terms with things that must seem strange to you. Je suis desole, it will become easier." Jill grabbed her paper up. "So, I am going to get some things for you, clothes mostly. Is there anything you need?" She handed over the paper for Alice to make a list.

Alice took her wallet out.

"Almost forgot about that." Luther grabbed it from her. "I'll dispose of this later on."

"Whoa, you cant dispose of it, I need those, if I cant access my bank, my apartment. Sorry, no." Alice grabbed it back.

"Alice." Claire spoke softly behind her causing the blonde to turn around. She held out her hand. "You died yesterday. You don't need those anymore."

Alice couldn't help it, her eyes began to well up.

Luther quietly usher K-mart out of the room. "Lets get your lessons started." She followed without a word.

Jill moved next. "I'll just get a few things for now. We can get more later."

Claire waited for the door to close before moving closer to Alice.

"Sorry, I didn't think of any of this last night. I had a life, a job, friends, the people I work with." She inhaled sharply. "And what now?" She turned her eyes to Claire. "What now?"

Claire moved further and took Alice into her arms, unsurprised when the blonde broke down. She stroked her hair and waited for the sobs to stop. When Alice looked up, she found Claire's face inches from her own and the feeling that first washed over her as she lay dying in the alleyway came back full force.

"It's OK, I promise, you're going to be fine." She brushed Alice's hair away from the green eyes she had come to adore. "You belong with me now."

When Claire's lips brushed across hers for the first time, something deep inside of her settled into place. Something she didn't realise was missing. She pulled back briefly and nodded.

Claire smiled at her before bringing her mouth down to Alice's and kissing her deeply.

/*/*/*

**Apologies for the lack of update yesterday. One of my puppies decided to break the ice and go swimming. She then refused to get out without her ball. You ever hear those things on the TV? "Person jumps in freezing lake to save dog" And you think to yourself, hmm, what would I do? Well, thanks to puppy number one, I now know. **

**I have never been so damn cold in my life.**

**Katgensen93 – Sadly I have never seen "The Originals" But I will look it up. Also no for the Blood &amp; Chocolate. Nice theory and quite reasonable, but nope, no werewolves for you! I toyed with it, but I wanted to keep as close as possible to RE rather than veering away into complete fantasy. Technically, Alice in the movies is an immortal, she can't die it seems and whilst she hasn't started drinking blood, I think it's easy to see the connection. Feel free to offer other theories as we go along though :)**

**Starrh – Thank ye kindly. If you want to see lack of directions, you should see me on a bike lol. Thanks for sticking around, I do have it planned out, so there is some direction, although you will be forgiven for thinking otherwise at various points.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Alice threw her head back, lost in desire as Claire rained kisses across her face and neck. "How is this happening?" She whispered. "I don't know you, we've only just met and yet if you let go of me, I don't think I could survive." She laughed. "Fuck, I turned into a bad romance novel."

Claire lifted her head up, moving Alice's blonde hair behind her ear. She rested their foreheads together, gently stroking the back of Alice's head while her other hand kept a firm hold on her hip.

"Have you bewitched me Claire?" Alice asked plaintively.

Claire kissed her again, softly, slowly. "No, no magic, I swear."

"I've never done this before. I've never wanted to be with a woman. I've never wanted to be with anyone the way I want to be with you now. How?"

Claire continued kissing every part of Alice's face that she could. "Because I want you, you are responding to me."

Alice shook her head and smiled. "Not to sound overly egotistical, a few people have wanted me, I never returned the favour, so why you?"

"Pheromones."

Alice tossed her head back and laughed, Claire wasted no time in kissing the further exposed skin. "It's true. Since the beginning of time, people are drawn to the strongest, the one that can protect and provide. With what I am? I am stronger, faster, deadlier. Certain types of people, they cant help but respond."

Alice buried her face in Claire's shoulder to muffle her laughter. "Wow, that's quite the opinion you have there Redfield. Did they have to widen the doors in this place to get your head through?"

Claire smiled at her. "You don't believe me? Fair enough, perhaps a small demonstration."

Before Alice could respond, Claire pulled her tightly against her body, spun them around and with a speed Alice couldn't comprehend, she had her pressed against the other side of the room with Alice half way up the wall. Claire pressed her face against Alice mid-section and began nuzzling her through her clothes.

"Holy fuck." Alice cried out as the lust shot through her. She raised her hands to the side of Claire's head and pulled her as close as she could. "God you feel so good." Claire backed off enough for Alice to slide down the wall into her arms thankful for the boasted strength that kept her upright. She forcefully pressed her mouth to Claire's, trailing off into a number of sweet kisses.

Claire's hands started to unbutton the shirt Alice had on. When they reached half way, Alice grabbed her fingers to still them.

"I need 10 minutes."

"I need longer than that."

Alice laughed. "I need to jump in the shower quickly. Seriously, I've been wearing this for too long."

Claire resumed work on the shirt. "I agree, it needs to go." She found her hands slapped away as a smirking Alice walked backwards, alone, to the bathroom. "10 minutes." And she closed the door behind her.

Alice dropped her clothes in record time, she set the water to run and was surprised to see the water coming down from the roof of the shower. Rather than a small faucet or shower head, Alice felt like she was standing under a colander or in a very warm rain storm.

Claire stared at her watch, her head cocked sideways to hear what she needed to. After 1 minute and 23 seconds. She opened the bathroom door and stared through the frosted glass at a naked Alice.

"You know, patience is a virtue." Alice called over the running water.

Claire dropped her jacket on the floor and entered the shower stall fully clothed. "One of many I no longer possess."

She pressed against Alice as her open mouthed kisses trailed across the wet skin, the taste of Alice mixed with the warm water running into her mouth made her moan.

Alice felt her sensitive skin rub against the rough and wet fabric. "Claire." She whispered. "Oh God Claire." She pushed her hands through the tangles of red hair, pulling Claire's mouth down to her breast. As Claire's mouth reached her nipple, she heard the sound of fabric tearing. She felt herself lifted up against the cold tiles, her legs instinctively wrapping around Claire's waist. She felt the hands on her hips slowly rocking her back and forth, her swollen sex grinding against Claire's naked stomach.

Alice alternated yanking Claire's head to her mouth and pushing it back to her breasts. When she pulled her up the next time, she moved her hands to the shoulder of the ruined shirt and pushed it fully open, her hands moving the Claire's breasts. Having no idea what she was supposed to do, she figured she would just do what she liked. She squeezed roughly, running her palms across the nipples. When Claire took more of her into her mouth she figured she was on the right track. She pulled roughly on the tips, rolling them between her fingers and was rewarded with Claire pushing her even higher against the wall.

When Claire entered her, it was swift, rough and without warning. Alice nearly knocked herself out as her head collided with the tile behind her. "Oh fuck me, yes, there, ungh, don't stop, please don't stop." She locked eyes with Claire, pleading with her to never stop. Claire let Alice's legs drop to the floor and kicked them apart, she kept her fingers moving with the same hard pace that had Alice begging as she started to stroke between her legs with the other hand. Alice let her eyes close as her orgasm built until she heard a voice commanding her. "Look at me. Let me see you." Alice brazenly opened her eyes and kept contact with the blue eyes boring into her. "I want to see you come for me."

And Alice did.

Draping herself across Claire's shoulders as the fingers between her thighs slowed, Alice gradually came back to reality, shuddering aftershocks jerking her closer to her mostly clothed lover.

As Claire's hands continued to draw random patterns across her back, she leaned up to whisper in her ear. "I've been told I'm a quick study. Tell me what you want. Show me how to make you feel good." She moved forward and kissed Claire, running her tongue erotically across the pronounced front teeth, sucking the top lip into her mouth.

Claire wound her hand into the messy blonde hair and pulled her head back to bite gently across Alice's throat. Her other hand moved to the belt holding her jeans in place and she flipped it open. She pulled Alice's hair downward until the blonde had no choice but to kneel down. When she realised what she was about to do, rather than being nervous, that bolt of lust came flying back into her system and she grabbed the sides of the denim pulling with all her might until Claire nearly crashed down on top of her. When she had them out of the way, she made sure Claire was watching her when she buried her mouth between the redheads thighs.

Claire was practically purring as Alice hummed against her. She grabbed the top of the shower for support, her other hand tightly wound in wet hair keeping Alice where she wanted her. Alice had one hand firmly pressed against her hip, the other began creeping up the inside of Claire's pants. When Alice tentatively entered her, Claire felt her body start to climb. She ground against Alice mouth and tipped her head back in a silent scream. She felt a sharp pain in her hip as Alice dug her nails in. When she looked down, Alice was looking up at her, waiting.

Claire's body exploded.

As Alice withdrew her fingers, Claire's legs gave out and she dropped to her knees on the floor next to Alice.

They smiled at each other, still trading kisses under the warm water. "So, how many people have you wanted?" Alice asked her quietly.

Claire stopped her wandering hands and looked Alice straight in the eye. "I have lived for nearly two millenia and in that time, I have wanted only one other person the way that I am drawn to you."

Alice's mouth dropped open in shock. "Are you serious? You've lived that long?"

Claire allowed Alice to stare into her, willing her to believe her, to find for herself the truth of Claire's words.

Alice brought their faces together again. "The things you must have seen."

Claire smiled and dipped her head down before she whispered between them. "I have seen the rise and fall of Gods and kings, I have seen empires born and torn apart. I have witnessed the very worst and the very best of humanity."

"Why are you alone Claire?" Alice whispered back to her.

Claire smiled. "Because you kept me waiting Alice."

*/*/*/

**This chapter was greatly aided by Natacha Atlas - Dub Yalil and a bottle of Chassagne de Montrachet that a friend sent over from Paris.**

**Katgensen93 – Hoping to explain a little better about how the Jill and Luther things works later on. Trying to figure out how to explain it without it sounding like a documentary lol**

**Angelsgir – Puppy is fine. Actually puppy number one is 3 years old, but will always be a puppy to me. All in all it was a miserble experience and confusing. I mean there I am, risking my life to save her, then spend the next 12 hours plotting how to kill her for putting me through that. Go figure!**

**Starrh – Ah youth, how I miss you. Then I remember my youth and think I was lucky to survive it, not sure I want to go back. Glad you are hooked. Sadly I picked a bad time to write, it would seem March is the month of crazy people and all of them ended up at my door wanting work done. Hopefully the next couple of chapters will be much longer.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Is my project finally ready?" Wesker enquired into the handset. When his answer came, he smiled. "You can show me the results in person. I will be down shortly.

Standing in his private elevator, Albert Wesker adjusted his already impeccable tie and waited for the numbers to count down. Situated far below the Umbrella Corporation offices, a vast and private lab sprawled across acres of underground real estate. Nicknamed by the lab workers as the hive due the number of interconnected rooms, it was staffed by people of the greatest intellect that chaffed at the restrictions civilisation placed on their genius. No one questioned results down here, but lack of results came with a very heavy price.

The elevator stopped at the lowest point, opening to a large white room. Partitioned off in glass was a fitness room where a formally dead Umbrella operative now stood having her vitals monitored as she was put through her paces to test her new abilities.

"Project Rain." Wesker drawled her name causing her to stop her running and face him. "I am sure you have many questions for me as to why I chose you for this experiment."

The gruff Latina wiped her face with the back of a boxing glove that she proceeded to yank off with her teeth. "Frankly, I don't care."

Wesker smiled, for the first time in as long as he could remember, he smiled broadly, plainly showing his teeth for all to see. "And that my dear Ms Ocampo is the first on my list of reasons. Although I greatly wish the bonus hadn't come with your unfortunate death, it was in fact the only way. There are a number of tasks I need carried out, but I must stress the importance of command. You will do exactly as asked, you will not deviate from your tasks, no matter what comes your way, no matter _who_ comes your way." He stressed the who part and made sure Rain was watching. "No matter how strong you are, there is always someone stronger. Do I make myself clear?"

Rain snorted at him. "Sure, whatever."

Wesker was on her before she saw him move. He held her effortlessly in the air by neck, no matter how hard she gripped his hands, they didn't give. Her legs dangled uselessly as her air was cut off. "Am I clearer now?"

Rain frantically nodded as the spots started dancing behind her eyes. Finally Wesker relaxed his grip and she dropped to the floor, coughing.

"Good. See that I don't need to repeat those instructions, it wont end well for you and I have spent a good many years and several billion dollars to herald your arrival." He walked to the back of the fitness area. "You have seen the increase in strength, but you haven't seen the best part of your gift yet. Would you like to see what else you can do?"

Rain decided not to provoke him for now and nodded without sound. Wesker turned to face her, gun in hand. Without warning he fired five shots, center mass into the unsuspecting woman.

Rain's initial reaction was to scream out, she dropped to her knees and looked at Wesker in confusion as she felt her insides knotting back together and something traveling around her internal system. There was a strange feeling running down her arm as she held out her arm and watched with amazement as the five now mangled bullets dropped out of her fingertips. "Holy shit."

Wesker smirked. "Indeed. I believe you will get used to the discomfort in due time. Congratulations, you are almost a God."

Rain laughed loudly. "Almost? Fuck, nothing can stop me. I'm fucking invincible." She shouted.

"It has been my experience that assuming leads to one thing only."

"Yeah yeah, assume makes an ass of you and me." She mocked him.

"No Ms Ocampo, assuming will lead you back to your grave. Be ready to leave on my order." Wesker walked back to his private elevator.

*/*/*/

"Fuck." Alice ground out through gritted teeth. "Harder, please baby, fuck, harder." She gripped the red head in her thighs, wrapping her ankles behind her ass and pulling her in with each thrust.

Claire tossed her hair back out of her face. The sweat ran down into her eyes, down her back, her arms. Since she stepped out of the shower with Alice earlier, they had gone on a marathon of sexuality that left them both in dire need of another shower.

"You want harder? Huh? I have an idea to make that happen."

Alice leaned her head down and took Claire's breast into her mouth, alternating one side, then the other, throwing Claire's train of thought off.

"Tell me." Alice panted out.

Claire thrust her hips forward one last time, leaving her buried to the hilt of a fake cock inside her lover. With a roll of her shoulders, she flipped them over leaving Alice on top.

"How about you do the work?" She leered upwards.

Alice sat upright, her hands raised behind her neck and started gyrating her hips while she slid effortlessly up and down.

Claire moved her knees into an upright position allowing Alice to lean back against her and continue her movements. Claire placed one hand at the junction of Alice's thigh, pulling her open to give her other hand enough room to work.

"Oh God yes, just there, right there, right there, don't move." Alice begged.

"Don't move? You want me to stop?" Claire teased her.

"Please don't, don't tease me, don't stop, don't you fucking dare stop, fuck, don't stop." Alice raised herself one last time before falling forward on top of a prone Claire who was looking far too pleased with herself.

"God you look good on top. You have no idea. What I wouldn't give to feel what it is like to be inside of you, just once."

Alice smiled into Claire's neck. "You mean that isn't part of your bag of tricks?"

Claire laughed. "It's not sadly. I guess that stops me from being perfect."

"Uh huh, just that?" She leaned down and kissed Claire.

"I would love to know what that feels like." Claire spoke against her lips.

Alice moved backwards toward the end of the bed. "Lets see if we cant improvise." She moved her hand between the straps attached to Claire and as she started stroking, she took the silicon toy into her mouth.

"Oh sweet Athena." Claire cried out as she grasped the side of Alice's head in both hands.

/*/*/*

"Why are you guys so quiet tonight? Seriously, you've said like five words between you. Whats going on? Are you worried that Alice and Claire wont get along? Cos if you ask me, they seem to be doing OK." K-mart rambled on.

Jill and Luther looked at each other and grimaced. "Fuck, how much longer you think they are going to be at it?" Jill whispered to Luther.

Luther looked up with a pained expression. "I have no idea. I guess Alice can match her stamina at least."

"No kidding. Ungh, you think she forgot about the side effect? I mean it's been a while."

"Well, she hasn't been with anyone, since K-mart moved in. Even before that, it was always casual, certainly not this bad."

"You think she would answer the phone if I called it?" Jill asked.

"You realise you just whined right?" Luther teased her.

"Jesus Christ. It's two floors down, not like we are at my apartment. That's it! My apartment!" Jill jumped up and grabbed her jacket.

"Whoa whoa whoa, where are you going?" Luther glared at her.

"My apartment. I cant spend the night like this."

"And I can? Uh uh, how about I go to your apartment and you stay here with K-mart?"

Jill looked at him and tried desperately to come up with a reason. "Rochambeau?" She offered.

"Oh you are a laugh a minute."

"OK, OK, chifoumi? She offered.

Luther shook his head at her. "You want to rock, paper, scissors to see who gets to go up stairs and..."

Jill nodded. "Yeap."

"You're on, best of three and no cheating"

"Cant do it, we do it three times, I'm gonna cheat, old habits die hard you know. Just once, on three."

Luther nodded and on three produced a fist. Jill wrapped her paper hand around his fist. "Sorry Luther. I'll tell you what, I'll come down later and 'relieve' your baby sitting duties OK?" She laughed.

"Laugh it up Valentine. Laugh it up. You will forgive me if I don't get up to see you out?"

K-mart walked back to the kitchen. "Whatcha doin? You leaving Jill? I was gonna put Glee on!"

Jill grabbed her jacket and purse and kissed the young girl on her way out. "Sorry kiddo, I have to take care of something, Luther will watch it with you." She smiled as he glared at her. "Hey, I'm doing you a favour. Trust me, in about 10 minutes, this will all be a bad memory. Later guys. Love you." And she left.

K-mart watched the door closed then looked back to Luther. "You guys are being seriously fucking weird tonight."

Luther dropped his head down to the counter with a thump. "K-mart, you ain't just whistlin Dixie."

*/*/*/

Alice rolled Claire onto her side and curled up behind her, nuzzling her hair. "You smell good."

Claire laughed. "I reek of sex Alice."

"And it smells good on you."

Claire pushed her ass back against Alice's groin. "Careful, you want to start again?"

Alice smiled. "I'm giving it serious thought. Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything."

Alice stopped moving so Claire turned her head around to see what was wrong. "Are you OK?"

Alice stared at the ceiling. "Every so often, reality comes crashing in, what's happened, where I am, what you are. It comes at the strangest times."

Claire turned over and pulled Alice into her arms. "What set it off this time?"

"You said I could ask you anything."

Claire cocked her head in confusion. "And you can."

Alice ran her hands through Claire's sweat soaked hair. "That's just it. When I think of all the things I could ask you, I remember what you are."

"So what do you want to ask?"

"You said something, the other day."

"I said you belong with me now."

"How did you know that's what I was going to ask?" Alice asked in confusion. "Fuck, can you read minds?" Alice pulled a weird face, like she was desperately trying not to think of anything. Unfortunately all she could think of was Claire naked and all the things she had yet to try with her.

"Alice, what are you thinking about?"

"You tell me!" Alice demanded to which Claire burst out laughing.

"I have no idea, I cant read your mind any more than I can fly to the moon and back." She continued laughing. "Though I really want to know what you were thinking about just now."

Alice pulled the pillows over her face. "Never mind."

"You never questioned it when I said it, it seemed only a matter of time before you brought it up."

Alice came back out from the pillow. "How did you come to be what you are now? Did someone make you?"

Claire took a deep breath and wondered where to start. "When you hear the word demons, what do you think of?"

Alice's eyes almost crossed at the apparent segue.

"I know what most people think, but I can tell you, I have never seen anything to make me believe the stories. What I do know, is that there are things, that are not of this world. Whether they are of another world, or another dimension or heaven or hell, I don't know. But many years ago, these things appeared on this world and became involved with mortals. The union produced offspring that were neither human nor demon. I was 18 when I turned and became what I am now. I don't remember much, the problem with being as old as I am, you forget things. If you try to remember what you did and said 20 years ago, you struggle. Imagine trying to remember 200 years ago? I have books filled with memories, unfortunately, I didn't think to start writing in the beginning."

Claire sat up and drank deeply from the water by her bed. Alice sat upright waiting for her to continue. "You don't look 18."

"Things change. When you marry at 13, probably dying at 40, things don't have the same perspective as they do now, or indeed 100 years ago. But I changed. I woke up in the middle of the night, I was in agony, my mouth was bleeding, my stomach was cramping so badly I was doubled over. Someone ran to fetch help, before I know it, I have half the village in my hut."

Alice didn't know whether to shake her head or laugh or cry. The idea of Claire Redfield living in a hut? "Where were you born?"

"Germania. I don't remember exactly where, but that was the general area. So there I am, dying or at least I think I am, when it happened. I was no longer human. I attacked and killed the nearest person to me. Then the next, then the next. I don't remember all of it, but I remember that I ran. As far and as fast as I could. The world wasn't as big as it is now. You couldn't travel a great deal, not with any real safety, but somehow word of mouth spread. We were drawn to each other, the offspring. Many of them didn't survive the initial change, the sick and the weak, they didn't survive. Some of them never made it out of their homes before they were killed. The few that remained, we sought each other out, stayed together for many years."

"I thought you said that Vampires don't trust each other?"

Claire nodded. "That takes us around to your first question. You belong with me. There is something in our blood, it both attracts and repels. There are some people that can't stand to be near me. They have no idea why, but I cant tell you how many times I have been attacked for no apparent reason. There are others, again, very few, that would lay down their life for me before I had said a word."

She took a deep breath. "There are people that I am attracted to, not necessarily physically, but it feels good to me, it hurts me if they are away for too long. People like Luther and Jill. When I came across K-mart, I felt it instantly. That was hard, I didn't want to draw her into my world, when I saw that she responded to me straight away, it about broke my heart, she was just a child. But when she told me of her life, it made it easier to keep. Then there was you. I knew when I saw you in that alley, before I realised what I was doing, I killed that woman to save you. Had that been any other situation, I would have walked away. Self preservation is paramount to us. But my body knew you, before I did. I knew you would come back some how, when I looked into your eyes as you lay dying in my arms, I knew, you belonged with me. I have felt like that with one other person in more years than I can count."

Alice felt an irrational stab of Jealousy. "What happened?"

"She was one of us. One of the offspring. Wesker wanted her, she rejected him and he killed her. That was the first time it had happened. When Wesker took her blood into him, it changed him, made him stronger than the rest of us, but also made him, different. That's when we realised that we couldn't trust each other. I remember it clearly, there was a spark in everyone's eyes when he changed. When we realised what power it held to consume our own. I moved to kill him for what he did but all hell broke out, we had turned on each other like animals, it was a bloodbath. I ran. A few ran, many were killed. That's why we cant turn others. I would make Jill and Luther immortal in a heart beat if I could, but to do it, I would have to drain nearly all my blood, leaving me utterly defenseless and I don't trust anyone to be in that state. So the best I can do is keep them alive and ageless."

Alice stared, utterly bewitched.

"Does that answer your question?" Claire held her breath, waiting to see what Alice would do with this information.

"And will you do the same for me?" She whispered into the dark.

"I would very much like to, yes."

Alice looked down shyly. "Will you show me the world?"

Claire's smile could have lit up the neighbourhood. "Alice." She breathed against her lips. "I would give you the world." They began kissing and soon the covers were thrown across the room and they lost themselves again.

*/*/*/

Several hours later, Alice lay curled around Claire from behind again, both women fighting to keep their eyes open.

"What is that infernal noise?" Alice asked.

Claire started laughing.

"Do you hear that? It's like someone is drilling. Who puts up shelves at 4 in the morning? Is it coming from downstairs?"

Claire was laughing so hard the bed shook. "Oh God. That would be Jill. An unfortunate aspect of the attraction and the blood bond that we all share."

Alice shook her head. "I don't get it."

"We share emotions. Not all of them, not all the time, but if they are strong emotions like say, one of us starts an intense affair with an amorous lover with epic stamina after a long absence and then spends 8 hours rolling around, the others feel it."

"They know we had sex?" Alice asked horrified.

"Oh they knew the minute I opened the shower door. I'm afraid the emotions must have bounced back and forth between the three of us, poor Luther, he's going to kill me in the morning."

"Why? Cant he just, take matters into his own hands." Alice asked reasonably.

"Luther has K-mart with him, he isn't going to do that while she is sleeping in the next room. He just couldn't. Jill it seems managed to get some quiet time judging by the noise."

"That doesn't explain why she is putting up shelves at 4am." Alice lay back down and tried to ignore the constant grinding noise.

"That would be her lover."

"Jill has a lover?"

"Uh huh, his name is Bob, ask her about him tomorrow." Claire smirked as she finally closed her eyes and fell asleep.

*/*/*/

**A/n Finally I managed more than 6 pages. Sadly the crazy train is running at full tilt.**

**Starrh – To be fair, Alice didn't really get her ass kicked by Rain, it was a bit of an unfair fight. I mean there you are, weight of the world on your shoulders, trying to decide between Kung Pao Chicken and Beef fried rice while you figure out if your boss if a homicidal maniac and some crazy chick jumps you, not so much as a war cry and whacks you on the back of the head. Sadly having been whacked on the back of the head before, I can assure you, it makes things a tad fuzzy. In a fair fight, Alice would totally have bitch slapped her! **

**Alice isn't really submissive, she is in over her head, life threw a massive curve ball at her, but she is getting back on her feet. I wanted to write her in more of a secondary role though because all the fics and the movies have her save the day, but Claire was more of a bad ass to me, she was totally human and had no idea about crazy corporations and zombies until she woke up one day. I think that took more guts. So that was a long winded way of saying "Hell if I know" :) But glad you are enjoying yourself.**

**Alexis – Ah my beloved penguin. You got points for the writing compliments, then lost them again comparing it to McDonalds. But I forgive you, especially when I think about you stroking your own ego. Wait. Never mind. I didn't mean to write that. Actually cher, your exhibition comment will come in handy in a few chapters. Claire is going hunting, which apparently is a very private thing between vampires. Glad you caught up, sorry I kept you up tonight, of all the ways I could think of keeping you awake, this was never one of them. Wait. Never mind. I didn't mean to write that either.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Alice woke to the sound of the shower. Knowing it was unlikely she would get anything done if she joined Claire she dragged herself out of bed and walked back to her own room. True to her word, Jill had picked up some clothes for her. Jill had picked up a lot of clothes for her. She thought back to her own apartment and guessed she probably didn't have this many to start with. She picked up a few of the packages and whistled. She certainly did have the quality that Jill had picked out for her. She took the first casual looking things she could find and headed into the shower.

20 minutes later she made her way to the kitchen to find Jill and Claire hanging out over coffee and croissants. Jill spotted her first and greeted her with a huge smile. She took Alice in her arms and kissed her. "Welcome to the family Alice. I'm really sorry it happened the way it did, but I am really glad you are here now."

Alice was genuinely touched by the words. Even more so when she saw how happy Claire was to see Jill embrace her.

"Good morning." Claire spoke up as she passed a plate of pastries over along with a mug of coffee. "I had hoped you would join me in the shower this morning."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Be glad I didn't, you probably wouldn't have got much done today."

"I'm glad you didn't, Christ Claire, poor Luther, I had to leave him looking after K-Mart. I doubt he slept a wink."

"You _had_ to leave him?" Claire laughed at her.

"Tsk, mais oui. No way I could have stayed. Did you forget about the effect it would have on us, or did you just not care."

"At least you had your lover over to help." Alice offered.

Jill looked confused and missed Claire smirking behind her coffee. "My lover?"

"Yes, though what he was doing with all that noise I daren't ask."

"Alice what on earth are you talking about? I don't have a lover."

"Bob? Didn't you say that was his name?" Alice asked Claire, curious as to why she looked like she was about to pass out from lack of breathing.

Jill burst out laughing. "Oh my God. Claire you are evil." She leaned over and whispered in Alice's ear causing the blonde to go bright red.

Alice shook her head. "Uh huh. Bob. Right." She looked at Claire. "Paybacks are a bitch, remember that."

Claire walked over and placed her arms around Alice from behind. "Sorry, couldn't help it. You look nice by the way."

Alice leaned back in the warm embrace. "Thank you. And thank you." She spoke to Jill. "I am curious about the underwear choice."

Jill leered at her. "You don't like them? I imagine you look rather good in them."

"Uh huh, I bet you do. So I have a question. Seeing as you burnt all my documentation. How do I get by? Money, driving, ID?"

Jill jumped up and grabbed her purse. "That reminds me. Here, welcome to the family, officially." She handed over a platinum card to Alice. "Luther is sorting out your new identity later on today. We should have a drivers license, passport and other bits and pieces by tonight." 

Alice looked uncomfortable. "I cant take this."

"Of course you can." Jill replied.

"And how is he doing that?" Alice asked.

"Luther has several law degrees. Obviously he has to retake them every thirty years or so. He handles all our legal needs." Jill replied.

"And what do you do?"

"I'm the reason you have that shiny platinum card cher." She boasted. "When I first met Claire, she was practically a vagabond. Selling favors in Paris to get by, it was very sad." She shook her head dramatically while Claire rolled her eyes.

"Actually, how did you meet Claire? I know about K-mart and Luther. But not you, what's your story?"

"Not dissimilar to yours. Late 1500's, France. Wesker was an arch-bishop at the time."

Claire interrupted. "Wesker wants power. No matter what time period we are in, he goes for the power. Middles ages it was the church, 21st century its big business."

"Quite. So there I am, a model citizen in Paris..." She ignored Claire's disbelieving snort. "Wesker caught my brother stealing. We were gypsies. We were sought out and despised in equal proportion. Wesker caught him stealing, he was due to be executed. I went to Wesker to beg for his life. He said that the gypsies were causing too many problems and we needed to be removed. Said that if I were to help him with his problem and promise to leave the town, he would spare my brother."

"I'm guessing he didn't keep his word?"

Jill muttered something angrily in French that Alice couldn't catch. "He did not. He sent me to kill a high born lady traveling by coach to Paris. Said I was to kill her before she made it to Paris and make it look like a robbery. I was an exceptional thief. My brother was arrested because he wanted to be like me. I didn't know he followed me, so when the alarm rang, I ran out, I had no idea I was leaving him behind. Wesker assumed that I would do anything to save him and that being as good as I was, I would have no trouble killing the woman. I'm not a killer. I have killed, you don't live as long as I have without getting into a few fights. But I am not a murderer. It was my family. What could I do?"

She looked at Claire with such sorrow, like she still hadn't forgiven herself. Claire moved from behind Alice and took Jill into her arms. When she kissed her, Alice expected to be jealous, instead she was just happy that Jill was calming down. She mentally added it to the list of 'weird shit that happened to me this week' and waited.

When Claire broke away from the brunette woman, she looked at Alice nervously, when she saw Alice smile at her, she broke into the biggest smile that Alice had no choice but to return.

"So you couldn't do it?"

"Oh I tried. I set a trap in the road. The wheel brace broke leaving Claire and the driver stranded. I was about to jump out when I heard her tell the driver to go ahead to the next village and get help, that she would be OK. He stumbled off, probably glad to be out of the woods at that time of night, coward. I was about to move forward when Claire looked to where I was hiding. She couldn't have known I was there, but she looked right at me and told me to come out. I was shaking I was so scared. She asked if I meant to kill her. I told her that I had been sent to kill her, but that I wasn't a murderer. I told her that her life was in danger if she reached Paris. She asked what I wanted in return. I asked her for a piece of her dress and some blood so that I could save my family. She obliged."

"Wow. Just. Wow. So what happened next?" Alice was on the edge of her seat.

"I took the cloth back to Wesker as 'proof' of my part. He did this weird thing, he sniffed the cloth and looked at me with this look of awe. Anyway, I foolishly thought he would honor his side of the deal. He told me I would be well rewarded, that as promised, my family would leave Paris and I would be reunited with my brother. Then it all went dark. I woke up with a screaming headache in jail. The guards took great delight in telling me that my brother was broken on the wheel in the town square the day before, he was convicted of killing a high born woman on the way into Paris. My entire family were rounded up, locked in a barn and then the barn was set alight." Jill was gritting her teeth so tightly by this point Alice was afraid they would break.

"I was due to be executed the following day. The same way as my brother. I sat there in the cell, terrified. To be broken was a terrible way to die Alice. The guards posted by the cell were enjoying food and wine that Wesker provided, he wanted them alert in case anyone tried to break me free. There was the sound of laughter and singing, then screaming. Death came swiftly for them that night. Claire killed nearly 30 members of the guard, she walked up to my cell, said she was sorry about my family, unlocked it and said, we have to go now. I never looked back. Wesker was run out of town by an angry mob the next day, his properties burnt out, his church ransacked. The villagers believed an avenging angel had come to claim justice for the gypsies. We were all a bit superstitious back then." She smiled.

"Claire may not exactly have been as poor as I made out by the way."

Alice laughed. "Is that so?"

"Yeah, I remember when she gave me the 16th century equivalent of a platinum card. I asked what I was allowed to buy with it, she told me anything I ever needed or wanted. So I bought my own donkey."

Alice spat half the coffee out and nearly choked on the other half.

"It's true. She said she always wanted her own donkey, it would have been a sign of great wealth to the gypsies, that damn thing followed us around the world for nearly 30 years. He hated me, always trying to kick me as I walked past."

"He didn't hate you. You didn't give him a chance." Jill objected.

"I spent 30 years with him Jill, how much of a chance did he need?"

"Anyway, I have something of a gift with money so don't make a big deal about the card. We have more than we ever need." She put the card back in Alice's hand. "Welcome to the family Alice. Please don't buy a donkey."

K-mart interrupted anything Alice could say about a donkey as she bounced in to the kitchen and straight up to Claire. "Hi."

Claire wrapped her in a bear hug. "Hi yourself."

She turned around to face Alice and smiled. "Luther has your new ID. I helped pick out your new name."

Alice shook her head and hoped it was something she could live with.

"Hey Luther. Hows things?" Claire called over.

Luther glared at her. "I'm happy for you Claire, I truly am. But don't speak to me. Alice, this is all you need. Alice Parks, clean record, exemplary citizen, driving license and passport. Alice is dead, long live Alice." He took her in his arms and swung her around before putting her down again. He leaned down to whisper in her ear. 'I may be pissed at Claire for last night, but I am truly glad at how happy she is, it's been far too long. Welcome to the family Alice."

Alice had to wipe her eyes. "Thank you. All of you. I wont lie, these last few days have been a headfu.." She stopped when she remembered K-mart.

"It's all good, I hear a lot worse hanging out with Jill. By the time I was 13, I could tell you to go fuck yourself in 9 different languages." She said proudly.

Alice laughed. "I lost my parents when I was very young. I never had a family. All things for a reason I guess. I'm happy to be here." She looked at Claire. "Really happy to be here."

"Listen sorry to break up the party, but we have an issue Claire. I picked up the mail this morning, K's grandparents have decided they want another run at custody."

Claire shook her head. "Don't worry about it Luther, that scheisser lawyer of theirs is still trying his luck. Just throw everything we have at him until they run out of money again."

"That's the thing, they aren't using him, they have a firm here in New York." He handed over the paperwork to a wide eyed Claire.

"How the fuck can they afford these people? This is one of the top firms in the country? What the fuck is going on Luther?"

The big man shook his head. "I have no idea. They want a meeting in two days down in Texas, I'm flying out tonight. Claire these guys mean business."

K-mart spoke up from the door. "Why don't we just leave? If we disappear they cant take me back."

"It's not that easy K, as you are under 16, if we disappear while there is a case pending, it triggers an amber alert, we cant risk that." Claire said sadly.

"But you promised I wouldn't have to go back. You cant let them take me back Claire? I'm not going back, they cant make me can they?"

When no one responded immediately, the distraught blonde ran off to her room crying.

"Luther this needs to go away, no matter what it takes OK?" She followed after K-mart leaving the others in the kitchen.

"What can I do? How can I help?" Alice offered sincerely.

Luther sat down and let out a long sigh. "Nothing, we have to do this legally. We just need to hold them off until she hits 16." He laughed bitterly. "I told Claire that gesture would come back and bite her in the ass some day."

Jill shrugged. "Perhaps, but it meant the world to K-mart." She looked at a confused Alice. "K-marts grandparents didn't offer to take her in, either when her mom died or when her step-dad died in a 'mysterious car accident'. As far as they were concerned, she could go into foster care. When they found out that K was living with a rich woman in New York, they tried to get custody. I think they thought that Claire would continue to support her even if she lived in Texas with them."

"And Claire won?" Alice asked.

"Heh, not exactly." Luther picked up the story. "We met them in Texas with this two bit lawyer. It didn't take long for Claire to figure out what they wanted. She flat out asked the grandparents how much they wanted. They got all offended, made like it was such an insult, then the lawyer said perhaps we should discuss this away from K-mart. Claire said no, she wanted K-mart to know what she was worth. Poor kid was so upset by it all, she had only been with us 6 months. So Claire pulls out her checkbook and says to them, 'If I write you a check for what she is worth, I take it you wont pursue this matter further?' and man you could see the dollar signs in their eyes. They agreed. Claire moved her pen around, then handed over the check. She stood up and we all went to leave when the woman says that the check is blank. Claire looks right at K-mart and says of course it is, K-mart is beyond price. Then she says to me 'Bury them in paperwork, or I will bury them'. I threw every legal writ I could think of at them. We never heard back, I think they ran out of money."

"So how does that explain the new expensive mouth pieces?" Alice asked.

"I have no idea." Luther sighed again. "But its gonna be a long fucking weekend in Texas." He got up and excused himself to pack promising to call when he had some concrete news.

*/*/*/

"I promised you, that you would never have to go back there, and I meant it. They can do whatever they want, but if we have to leave the country and live in Africa for 50 years until they are all dead, then that is what we will do OK?" Claire asked the sobbing girl in her arms. "Did Jill teach you how to say go fuck yourself in Swahili?"

Finally K-mart laughed. "Not yet."

Claire kissed her head. "Well tell her to get on that, just in case. You belong with us K-mart. Nothing is going to change that OK?"

K-mart nodded. "Love you Claire."

"Love you too sweetheart, never doubt that."

"I wont. I'm sorry. How's Alice doing? She seems to be dealing with all this well."

"Alice is doing fine. She is staying with us as well."

"I'm glad, she's really nice."

"She is."

"And pretty. Do you think she is pretty?"

Claire laughed. "Yes, very pretty."

"I knew she was totally into you."

"Uh huh. Come on, go say good bye to Luther before he leaves. I have to go out for a while. I'm leaving Alice here to get settled in. You want to spend the night with Jill?" Claire asked her.

"Seriously? Sooner or later you are gonna have to get over it and have sex with her without sending me out for the night."

"Watch it smart ass." Claire swatted at her as she ran out to say good bye to Luther.

Claire whispered something to Jill as K-mart went to see Luther off. Jill nodded and went downstairs taking K-mart with her.

"What was that about?" Alice asked when she came back to the lounge.

Claire looked nervous which immediately piqued Alice's curiosity. "I have to go out. I wanted K-mart somewhere safe."

"OK, where are we going?"

Claire ran her hand across the the back of her neck. "We aren't. I have to go alone."

Alice groaned. "Claire, I've been cooped up for too long. It's going to be dark soon, no one is going to see me. C'mon, please I need to get out for a while."

"I have to feed." Claire blurted out. She stood ramrod straight waiting for Alice's response.

Alice stood up and put her arms around Claire. "I know what you are. I figured this was part of it. I don't mind. Its part of who you are. I'm not totally un-freaked out about it, but I have to get used to it right?"

Claire looked almost drained as the relief hit her. "About that. I'm glad, I mean, its great that you are mostly un-freaked as it were. But you still cant come with me."

Alice scrunched her eyebrows up. "Why the hell not?"

Claire smiled at the force behind the words. She knew when she first saw Alice that there was a fire behind those pretty green eyes. You didn't do what Alice did for a living without being a force to be reckoned with. It had started showing last night, after Alice's initial overwhelmed response to being a vampires lover, it seemed to be coming out in full now she was being told she couldn't leave the apartment.

"You do know that Rain attacked me from behind right? I would _never_ have gone down to her if she hadn't snuck up on me. I can take care of myself Claire, I don't need a baby sitter."

"It's not that. I know you can take care of yourself. Alice when we feed, it's a private thing, even when the offspring were together, we never fed in front of each other. It's a deeply private thing, neither Jill nor Luther has ever come with me."

Alice's hackles were well and truly up. "I'm not Jill or Luther."

Claire smiled. Alice had just staked a claim on her, whether she knew it or not. Part of Claire was excited by this, but the part of her that had lived this way for a long time, was not budging. "I know, you aren't. But Alice, think about this. For us, this is something we never shared with anyone. It's a level of intimacy that..." She struggled with the words. "I honestly don't think I can feed in front of you." She threw her hands up. "It's that private."

Alice looked at her. She tilted her head as if trying to figure out her next move. Something Jill said this morning came back to her and she got a devilish look in her eyes that made Claire want to take a step back.

"OK. Fair enough. I tell you what. If in 15 minutes your are still standing by this door, then I get to go with you."

Claire looked at her in confusion. "What? What are you saying, you think you are going to force me to stand here?" She started chuckling to herself. "OK, you have a deal." She waited to see what Alice's first move would be, surprised when Alice walked past her into her own bedroom.

"What are you doing?" She called out.

"Give me a minute please." Alice called back.

Claire looked at her watch. "You can have two. But then I am leaving." She smirked. Testing her wills with Alice was an exhilarating feeling. She faced off against Jill all the time, but with Jill it was always sneaky and she often came out on the losing end. With Alice it was endearing, it would take a few years before Alice knew her enough to start getting her own way. She found her self grinning at the idea of Alice being around for the few years it would take.

She heard a noise as Alice came out of her bedroom, she turned around to greet her and tell her goodbye when the grin dropped off her face and hit the floor along with her jaw.

Alice walked toward her in a crisp white shirt fully opened with nothing underneath it, the scarlet underwear she wore looked like dental floss, a fact confirmed as she walked past Claire showing vast expanses of Alice's perfect ass. If that wasn't bad enough, Claire realised that Alice was carrying the silicone toy that was last seen strapped to Claire at two o'clock last night.

She started following Alice into the room properly when the blonde spun around and pressed one hand against her chest holding Claire against the door.

"No. You get to stand by the door and if you are still standing there in 10 minutes, I'm coming with you tonight.

With that, she left a sputtering Claire by the door as she pulled the cushions off the couch and leaned back to make herself comfortable.

Claire had a feeling that perhaps it wouldn't take a couple of years for Alice to catch up and she prayed to all the Gods she could remember that neither K-mart or Jill forgot to take anything with them tonight.

*/*/*/

**A/n **

**MiccaAbernathy – Cool name! Are you related to Alice? Thanks for the praise, it means a lot to me :) **

**Starrh – I see I am in good company, thank you :) Yes Alexis is following along, I promised her a sexy fiction if she let Claire live. Turns out she planned to let her live all along. But I'm not surprised, she is like that. **

**Alexis – You lie. I asked you to show me yours and you did that whole monkey paw thing. I will keep you awake anytime cherie. Or perhaps if you are unable to sleep, I could call and make soothing ocean sounds. Perhaps some music, "Mud, mud, glorious mud..."**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Alice had done many things in her career that required her to put on a brave front to a situation that she didn't feel very brave about. As she leaned back on the couch, she had a feeling that this ranked up with the very best. But as with every other time, her resolve snapped into place and Alice saw it as one more mission to accomplish. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her eyes to meet Claire's, certain that she had the redhead's undivided attention she smiled. A wicked, devious smile that made it clear that Alice would be getting exactly what she wanted tonight.

Claire managed to get over the initial shock when she realised what Alice had planned, she lazily crossed her arms and smirked, daring her to finish what she started, sure that Alice was playing a game she couldn't win, desperately hoping she was wrong. Either way she wasn't going to make it easy on her. Alice smiled at her and ran her hand through her hair, down the side of her face, she sucked two fingers deep into her mouth, trailing them down across her throat and beneath the white shirt and began toying with her nipple out of sight of her audience.

Claire's smirk faltered.

Alice closed her eyes and rolled her head backwards. The first moan out of her mouth was deep, ending with a hiss of breath as she moved her other hand down and grasped both breasts, the shirt now pushed aside leaving Alice naked except for her tiny scarlet thong.

Claire's smirk was no where to be seen. She swallowed, her dry throat resulting in an audible gulp that made Alice chuckle.

Emboldened by Claire's obvious response, Alice threw herself into the show. Sliding her hands down her front, moving them to the side of her hips, she eased the silk down to her ankles, intending to remove it completely, she changed her mind at the last minute and left them hanging off of one ankle. Placing one hand behind her head, grabbing hold of the armrest, she lifted one knee and using her left hand, pushed her legs open. She left her hand splayed across her most intimate area, casually stroking, blocking the view deliberately.

A subtle shifting at the doorway ensured she had Claire's rapt attention.

Moving her hand down, she slid her fingers through the wet folds, stopping on the upstroke to circle herself and drive her pleasure higher. Her glistening fingers trailed back to her breast, above the shirt the had worked its way closed again. Teasing her nipple through the cloth, aware of the warm wet circle she left on the fabric as her nipple hardened underneath.

Alice's wrist watched chimed at the ten minute mark.

She pulled her knees together, raised them up and to the side as she rolled onto her stomach. Claire watched as she picked up the toy from the side of the couch and brought it to her mouth. Sucking it inside, leaving a visible trail of saliva behind, she pushed backwards raising her hips up, supporting herself on her elbows. She moved the hand holding the silicone cock along the front of her body until it was level with the apex of her thighs.

Turning her head to look at Claire over her shoulder she waited until Claire's eyes met hers before making her point. "Shut the door, make a decision which side of it you want to be standing on when it closes."

The door clicked shut, Alice couldn't even pretend to be surprised to see Claire still standing there.

Running the silicone through her wet center to reactivate the dried saliva, she pushed her head down leaving herself fully exposed to her lover when she entered herself from behind.

The first time she slid inside caused her to moan and arch her back downwards. She started her strokes slowly, gradually increasing in speed, sensually moving her hips back and forth. When she felt the building pressure, she rolled onto her back, spreading her legs as wide as they would go, one leg pressed against the back of the couch, her other foot resting on the floor, using it to gain traction on her thrusting.

Claire's arms were still crossed as though holding herself in position, aware that moving her arms would allow her body to surge forward and take what she wanted. The cramping in her stomach that demanded she go out and feed was silenced by the resulting cries and whimpers from the blonde fast approaching ecstasy. Claire's breathing subconsciously mirrored the short staccato breaths of Alice as she willed her lover to finish and bring them both relief.

Alice was moving hard and fast, slamming inside of her self, her neck arched forward, her head pressed backwards, she moved her hand between her legs and started to get herself off. Rubbing frantic circles in time to the thrusting she began to fall apart.

"Oh God, Claire." She breathed the prayer across opened, wet lips.

Claire was physically holding herself together, she stared intensely at the view before her, as though willing Alice to come by thought alone. Her nostrils flared out, breathing in the scent of a beautiful woman teetering on the precipice of the little death.

Claire moaned out loud when Alice finally reached the end, calling out Claire's name in a repetitive benediction.

Alice felt her body slump as the chemicals ran rampant through her system, she pulled her knees together and underneath her to offer a degree of modesty, unaware of how sexy an appearance she gave out. She met Claire's eyes that were clouded with lust and something Alice couldn't place.

She raised an eyebrow in question.

Claire shook her head. "Grab your damn coat, its cold out."

*/*/

Alice shivered, her leather jacket was beautiful and she commended Jill for her taste but not for her functionality. Alice's own leather jacket that she would never see again had been a hell of a lot warmer. Claire it seemed was impervious to the cold. Rembrandt trotted ahead of them, sniffing out rats and lazily chasing them.

"How did you end up with him?" Alice stroked behind his ears as he ambled past her again.

"K-mart."

"He belonged to her?"

"She found him, some idiot had left him tied to a dumpster. It had been raining and the rope tied around his neck was getting tighter, she couldn't find anything to cut the rope so she worked her fingers bloody to get the knot open. Poor thing was hungry, wet, cold and dehydrated. His fur was missing in places, he was about the most pathetic sight you ever saw. I came home and found them both standing in the hallway, wet and bedraggled. K-mart had only been with us about 2 months. I took one look at her and she held her hand up and said 'now before you say anything...' I just shook my head and walked into the kitchen where Jill and Luther were trying not to be obvious in their enjoyment."

Alice laughed. "That's pretty cute."

"Oh yeah, very cute. About a week later, she still hadn't named him, we had some people in to decorate her bedrooms recently and they must have left some paint and tools behind in one of the closets. Damn dog had got in and had a field day with the brushes and trays, he came out and left paw prints all along the hallway. He also left them up the walls, God knows what he was doing up there, Jill, K-mart and I came out to see what the noise was, all I could see was the thousands of dollars it was going to cost to replace the wooden floors when Jill says 'we should call him Rembrandt!' I was all for re-homing him at the time. Remember the last time I lived with an animal the damn thing was always trying to kick me into next week, but K-mart said it would be good to have a guard dog, he could watch my back when I went out. Thankfully he grew out of his artistic stage." She finished sardonically.

Alice held her hands over her mouth to stop from laughing.

Five minutes later, the silence was broken again. "Do you feel the cold at all?" Alice grumbled.

Claire shot her a look.

"Jeez, just asking. What got you so out of sorts." She thought for a second and laughed. "Oops, never mind."

Claire shot her another look. "Alice, it's called hunting for a reason. I'm trying to pay attention."

Alice tilted her head in question. "How do you decide who to... you know. K-mart said you only feed on other predators. Is that true?"

"It is."

"Why?"

Claire sighed, certain that she wasn't going to get any peace just yet. She supposed it was natural to have questions. Was glad in a way that Alice was approaching the subject as well as she was. Part of her was worried that Alice hadn't yet taken everything in, hadn't dealt with everything that was going on in her life now. While she didn't necessarily want the blonde to have a crisis of conscience, she did feel it was somewhat inevitable and wanted to get it out of the way, rather than having it explode at the most inopportune time. Claire was sadly unaware of just how valid that concern was.

"There are some people, quite a few of them actually, that just don't serve any purpose on this planet, apart from their own. Most predators prey on the weak, I prey on the selfish, greedy, corrupt evil. I'm not entirely human, but I was once, part of me never forgot what that means. I don't distance myself from humanity, I know what it means to be human. I don't want to take someone away from this life that would be mourned. Besides, I find these are the kind of people that the law enforcers don't want to put too great an effort in for."

Alice grunted. "Makes sense. How can you tell? I mean, can you sense it?"

Claire nodded, "I can sense something. I don't know if it is scent, perception, a mental ability, but I just know the worth of a person if it is strong. Predators reek of something to me, I can see them coming a mile away."

"Fuck me I'm cold."

Claire rolled her eyes. "You can always go home."

Alice started to talk again when Claire held up her hand using a signal that she was sure Alice would understand from her military background. She pushed herself against a wall, confident that Alice would do the same.

Alice was straining to hear what had alerted Claire, when finally the sounds of a struggle reached her ears. A man came barreling around the corner, dragging something with him, his hand was over its mouth, muffling the sounds it made. Alice squinted into the darkness and realised he had a woman. He took his hand away from her mouth and immediately backhanded her. She cried out as she bounced against the wall and slid down it. Alice instinctively went to move forward to help when she felt Claire's hand on her arm and warm breath at her ear.

"Stay here. Don't move. Don't make a sound." Claire made a noise and Rembrandt ran through the shadows to the other side of the assailant, taking up position to both watch and guard.

Claire rushed forward silently crashing into the man that had at least a hundred pounds and a good foot on Claire. As they fell to the floor, Claire shouted to the terrified woman. "Run!"

She staggered to her feet and ran past the barely concealed Alice. Alice watched her run, noticing that she never looked back. She turned back to see what Claire was doing and was surprised that the fight was no longer going on, Claire had moved faster than the eye could see and stood behind the large attacker, she kicked the back of his knee sending him painfully to the ground, before the sound left his mouth, Claire had sunk her teeth into his throat.

Alice stood mesmerised as Claire held him as though he was a lover, she noticed that Claire's hips were moving slightly, getting closer and closer to him until she tore her mouth away and gasped in a lungful of air.

Alice was both horrified and aroused by the behavior. She watched in fascination as Claire pulled a blade from her boot and ran it roughly across the mans throat. She looked at Claire, surprised to see no real evidence of the blood that Alice knew had come out of the jugular vein at great speeds. Claire ripped a piece of the t-shirt he was wearing to wipe away the little blood that was there. Tossing the rag on to the body, she made her way back to Alice, the clicking of claws followed as Claire grabbed Alice and began walking out the way they had come.

Unsure of how she was feeling, Alice thought it best to remain silent.

Unsure of how her actions were perceived, Claire thought it best to remain silent also.

*/*/*/

Luther flopped back on the bed absolutely exhausted. Flying down and landing in the Texan heat after the frigidity of New York was a shock to the system. Even flying first class didn't allow him enough time to relax before he was thrust into the vipers den. K-marts grandparents had shown up with no less than 8 legal execs. Dealing with New York attorneys that assumed him to be less able as he was a single attorney with a single client. Trading legalese back and forth had been fun to start with as they realised he was not someone to be taken as lightly as they had assumed but as the day wore on and the grating smugness from the grandparents continued, Luther was gradually being worn down. He planned to get some food and call home to update Claire, he had left a message earlier to tell her where he was staying for tonight, now he needed to call her and arrange for her to come down and even up the sides somewhat. He also needed Jill. While Jill hadn't taken to law as much as he had, she still had a lot of experience up her sleeve, not to mention her ability to cut people down to size. He had suspected Wesker of being involved when he saw the letter head yesterday, having spent several hours in that room he was now left without a doubt. That meant that K-mart couldn't be anywhere near this right now in case they did have to make a 50 year lay over as Claire had suggested.

What he couldn't figure out was why Wesker would want to get involved in this, in his experience Wesker never poked at Claire for fun, he had made a few runs at her over the years, prior to his being at her side, but he never provoked her without reason, Luther just couldn't figure out his reason this time and for that he needed Claire.

His stomach rumbled reminding him that he needed to order take out. Normally he would have booked into a decent hotel, but between flight delays and traffic he barely made the meeting in time so for tonight he was stuck at a local motel with no room service. He sat up to order dinner and then call Claire to fill her in and hopefully get her on the red eye flight when there was a knock at the door.

Straightening his shirt out he opened the door and fell back in shock.

"Hey, remember me? Course I was a lot dirtier when we last saw each other. On account of you burying me." Rain sneered at him.

"Oh my God." Luther whispered when he recognised Rain.

"Pretty fucking close." And she knocked him out.

*/*/*/

K-mart had dragged Alice off to watch TV leaving Claire and Jill in the kitchen making coffee.

"You took her with you? Seriously? Wow Claire, what brought that on?" Jill looked at her in amazement.

"She had a very persuasive argument." Claire felt a grin tugging at her lips.

"That's quite the shit eating grin you have there." Jill laughed at her.

"Anyway, moving on! Did you hear from Luther?"

"Just the message from earlier." She checked her watch. "What time is it down there? An hour earlier?"

Claire nodded. "Give him a call, he cant still be in meetings with them can he?"

Jill punched his speed dial and waited for it to answer. When it went to voice mail, she left a message and hung up. "Gimme a sec, I'll call that flea pit he is staying at. Why he didn't just drive into town and get a decent hotel I don't know." She dialed the number to Luther's room, surprised when a woman's voice answered. Smirking that Luther was probably still suffering from being stuck babysitting K-mart the other night. "Hi, can I speak to Luther please."

Claire looked at her quizzically and laughed when Jill started bouncing her eyebrows up and down. She frowned when Jill's face changed.

"Why are you answering his phone, is he OK? Is he in some kind of trouble?" There was a beat while the voice on the other end asked her something. "I'm family and if necessary I'm his legal representation, can you tell me what's going on?" Another pause, this time Jill's face drained of color.

"Thank you, I'll be flying in tonight." She hung up. "The motel desk called the police, they saw a woman attack Luther and drag him out to a van. The police don't know where he is." Jill put her hand to her mouth and bit into the side to stop her self from crying out in pain.

Claire's eyes hardened. "Call the airport, find a pilot that will take us down tonight. Charter a fucking airbus if you need to."

Jill nodded and started dialing while Claire went to explain things to Alice.

*/*/*/

**A/n The writing of this chapter was greatly aided by _Halestorm - I get off_ and a rather splendid bottle of Irish whiskey. Not the whole bottle mind, but a couple of glasses.**

**Goodness me, drooling, brains melting, addicts and someone that fantasizes about magical vaginas. It's like being back in the asylum!**

**Angelsgir – If you have a drool problem, I always carry tissues with me. Goes back to the asylum days. Failing that, lets see if we cant send that fluid elsewhere ;)**

**G3n3ralRedfield – There is something about a crisp white shirt isn't there? Hope your brain feels better. Sadly I think this chapter might have broken it again. Sorry bout that.**

**MiccaAbernathy – Hello again! Glad you are enjoying yourself. Even happier to know I am now your dealer.**

**Alexis – Alice is living in denial land. You know that place, I'm sure we visited once or twice, though sadly not together. She is lining herself up for a break down of epic proportions though. I think Starrh was paying you a compliment, kinda rude of you to reply with an insinuation that her alley is big enough for you to walk down. Honestly I cant take you anywhere.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The silence was stifling, the only sound to be heard in the pressurized cabin was the roar of the engines outside the plane. Jill had been unable to find a small plane pilot last minute so called in a favour. As per Claire's instruction, they were now headed to Houston in an air bus.

The plane was empty save for Claire, Alice, Jill and K-mart but due to regulations it had a full staff. Alice had stepped up, ushering the other three into first class and taking the head stewardess aside and explaining that a friend was missing and they were doing an emergency flight down. Consequently, they didn't want to be disturbed.

The demonstration about health and safety went on regardless, however when the steward realised that the four passengers huddled together in first class were paying absolutely no attention, he stopped half way through, figuring if the plane went down, they could all just grab a passenger each and get them out.

Alice felt as though she was on the outside looking in. She had come to like Luther a great deal and was sure as the years passed they would be as close as he and Jill or he and Claire, for now though her friends were distraught so she did whatever she could to support them. She wandered down to coach where the staff were sitting around relaxing, one of them jumped up when they saw her.

"Hey, sorry, you should have just buzzed."

Alice waved him off. "Don't stand on ceremony, I know this is an odd flight, our friend means a great deal to us, thank you for giving us our privacy. Can I get some waters and maybe some sandwiches if you have them?" She asked politely.

He laughed nervously. "You hired the whole plane, I can probably rustle up some steaks if you want."

Again Alice waved him off. "Getting them to eat sandwiches is gonna be hard enough, just grab a few if you have them, I'll take them back."

"No problem." He smiled at her. "I'm sorry about your friend, I hope everything works out."

Alice smiled in return, she hoped it did as well, she had a feeling between Claire and Jill that Houston would be razed to the ground to find Luther and bring him home.

She had spoken with Claire while Jill arranged transportation for them. She offered to stay behind with K-mart while they both looked for Luther. Claire had an odd look on her face when she looked at Alice. "This is Wesker isn't it?" Alice nodded. She had no idea why, but she was pretty sure this had his mark all over it. "I want to keep you all close, if we separate, you and K-mart are vulnerable here, I wont lose you as well." Alice had left her to her thoughts and just grabbed her new ID and a change of clothing.

Making her way back to her new family with food and water, she set them down and started to eat. They all politely declined. Alice pushed the food back to them.

"I spent most of my life in military service, both in the US forces and Wesker's army. First thing you learn, when something goes wrong, eat, drink, you need your strength and you don't know when you are going to get sustenance next. Whatever is going on with Luther, we have to go in at full strength, and that means eating, whether we want to or not, choke it down. You will be grateful later." She carried on eating her own food, glad to see Jill and K-mart reaching for the packages and joining her.

Claire however was different, Alice hadn't had a chance to ask her yet, but she suspected that Claire's regular food intake was more for enjoyment or for appearances rather than need. She didn't know how often Claire needed to feed, she added it to the list of things to ask when shit calmed down.

*/*/*/

"Looks like the investigation is still in full swing." Alice said as they pulled into the motel lot behind the flashing sirens.

Claire turned to K-mart. "OK, remember what we talked about, I don't want to have to worry about you, so you stay in the car, I promise as soon as we hear anything, no matter how small, one of us will come back and tell you."

K-mart nodded, her wide eyes still red and wet.

"You don't go off with anyone, no matter who they are, no matter what they say, even if they say you are to come in and stay with us. If it isn't Me, Jill or Alice, you don't open these doors."

"I got it. You'll come back and tell me as soon as you know something?"

Claire nodded. "You know I will." Claire pulled her close and kissed her. "Lets find out what they know."

They stepped out of the car and were shortly intercepted by a police woman at the taped off area.

"You cant go in there, this is a crime scene."

"Tell Detective Burgess that Claire Redfield is here to see him."

The woman walked off and returned in a few minutes with a tall, bespectacled man that had an air of command about him. Claire was holding tightly to Jill's hand to try and stop her from shaking, whether from fear or rage Claire couldn't ascertain. As Detective Burgess made his way over to the three women, Claire subtly inhaled through her nose, by the time Burgess arrived, she had settled down, confident that she wasn't dealing with Wesker by proxy she asked what was going on.

"As I said on the phone, all we know is the receptions version of events, the man renting this room, who we know to be Luther West, was abducted this evening by a woman driving a large black van. She didn't have any description of the woman and we are waiting on a couple of CCTV cameras that line the only real route out of here. Can you think of any reason that Mr West would have been taken?"

Claire shook her head, the lie sticking in her throat. Implicating Wesker would get them no where, they had no proof and if the police started poking around his business it would likely only serve to get Luther killed. Claire was sure Wesker was holding Luther as some kind of bargaining chip, so all they could do was try to find him before Wesker called and started his games.

"What did Mr West do for work, do you know?"

"He worked a private law practice in New York."

Burgess raised his eyebrows. "That's a good place to start, we'll get a list of his clients and see if there is anything there, also we cant rule out kidnapping, do you have his next of kin details."

Jill took over the conversation. "Claire was his only client, he worked exclusively with her. She is also his next of kin."

"Oh. OK, so is there anyone that you can think of that might be targeting you? Someone that might use Mr West as leverage?"

The lie fell easily from her lips. "No one. I'm a very private person, you would have to do a lot of digging to find out anything about me." He waved at a colleague to bring him over. Alice had been watching the same man for a while, unsure of why he made her hackles rise. His somewhat shabby appearance gave the impression of a man that didn't care and Alice didn't want someone that couldn't care less working on this. He had also been glaring at Jill every time he looked over. Forcing herself not to growl as he arrived, Alice stepped behind Claire, pleased when the hand that wasn't holding on to Jill for dear life pulled her closer. Claire looked at her as if asking that she was OK. Alice shrugged and figured Claire would work out why she was irritated.

"This is my partner, Detective Gowers. He is going to get some statements from you, I'm gonna follow up on the CCTV. Where are you all staying while you are in town?"

"Right here." Claire answered and dared him to say otherwise.

He nodded briskly and walked away.

"So you are his only client and his next of kin? How's that work?" Gowers took out his note book.

"How does what work?" Claire responded.

"Kinda unusual isn't it? What exactly is your relationship with the victim?"

"Vous avez d'la merde dans les yeux? We are his fucking family, his name is Luther West, Vous ette l'roi du con." Jill again managed to refrain from spitting at the end of her tirade.

Gowers glared at Jill but directed his comments to Claire. "You wanna calm your little girlfriend down? This is a serious investigation, these are serious charges."

"She isn't my lover." Claire replied and Alice felt the temperature drop at the icy tone.

"My mistake, look miss, I appreciate your are upset, but I have difficult questions to ask and you would do well to answer them, are we clear?"

"She's my lover." Claire pulled Alice to her side. "And if you upset either of them with your insensitive questioning again, I will call the Texan governor and offer to personally bankroll his run at the presidency next year provided he demotes you to writing parking tickets. Are we clear?"

Gowers tried to hold Claire's eyes but found himself increasingly uncomfortable. "When you say family, can you expand on that?"

"We are not blood related in any legal sense, but we have power of attorney and are his only living kin."

"What was his business down here?"

"He was attending some meetings in relation to an adoption petition." Claire filled him in on the firm handling the hearings and K-marts grandparents. She thought it highly unlikely that they would get their hands dirty directly. The firm was reputable and probably unaware they were being manipulated in Wesker's games, but it wouldn't hurt to shake things up.

When she finished talking, Gowers heard his name called and went back behind the tape. There was a buzz of excitement around the officers, several of whom ran off to patrol cars, lights blazing and sirens screaming, they pulled out of the park. Claire strained to hear anything being said over the noise but couldn't pick anything useful out. Whatever was said was said in Luther's motel room and the noise drowned it out. She saw Detective Gowers heading back to her as fast as his bulk would allow.

"Alice give me your hand."

Alice put her hand out surprised when Claire whipped out the razor sharp knife she kept in her boot and sliced across the palm. Claire put the knife back quickly and held her hand over the bleeding wound. "Sorry cariad." She turned to meet the Detective.

"Mr West's phone has been activated, we have some units heading out there now. I'm going with them, I have to ask you stay here, if he is alive.. " He stepped back as Jill growled at him. "What ever the situation, I will have someone call back and let you know whats going on, OK?"

Claire held her hand out to him. "I apologise for earlier, this has been a very stressful time for all of us. I appreciate everything you are doing for us."

Jill's eyes almost bugged out of her skull. Alice merely raised an elegant eyebrow.

Gowers looked at the hand, wondering if it might bite, before tentatively offering his own and shaking firmly. Claire took his elbow and gripped while their hands were connected. "You've been most helpful."

She led the others back to the car and K-mart as Gowers went to his own car and followed the sirens.

"What the fuck? Helpful how?" Jill snapped.

"And why am I bleeding?" Alice asked.

"Because we need to follow those cars and we cant keep up with their speeds without gaining attention. I can scent Alice, her blood is now all over his jacket."

Before they got in the car to explain what was going on to K-mart, Claire grabbed Jill. "You need to wrap Alice's hand. I cant track if I am distracted."

Jill held her. "I understand. You drive, we'll take the backseat and clean up."

Claire dropped the roof of the car and pulled out in the direction of the police cars as fast as she could.

*/*/*/

They had traveled maybe 30 miles when Claire saw the flashing blue and red lights in the distance. Claire had no idea where they were, the main roads were about 5 miles back, they were now using dirt tracks, heading to what seemed to be a remote and uninhabited farm land.

"You want me to wait here?" K-mart offered, looking around at the spooky landscape.

"No, stay close to me, we have to leave the car and walk in, we have a better chance of getting past them." She took K-marts hand and walked the last few hundred yards to the barn.

They got to about 50 yards away and still no one had spotted them. As Claire took a deep breath in, she stumbled and Alice barely caught her in time. "No, no, no, no, no, Luther." She cried out and ran the remaining distance, forcing her speed down as she barreled past the half dozen police uniforms.

"Jesus Christ, lady you cant be in here I don't care how many governors you know. How the hell did you get here? C'mon get her out of here." Gowers tried to stand in front of her.

Claire was enraged. There was a placard on the floor, it's hastily scrawled message clear in the torchlight. _"All things come full circle." _ Claire raised her eyes as though they were lead weights. Luther was hanging from the barns main support beam. Wearing tattered pants that cut off mid calf, naked from the waist up and barefoot. The rope clearly placed across his original scar hiding it from view. Her beautiful Luther was now an ashen grey, his soulful brown eyes clouded in death. Claire was rooted to the spot, no one came to remove her, too busy dealing with a commotion outside the barn.

"Get your fucking hands off me. Claire!" K-marts little voice broke through to Claire and she had a scant second to turn around and grab K-mart before she ran in. Claire slammed them both against the wooden boards outside, holding the blonde head to her chest. "Stay here K-mart. Stay with me." She saw Jill run past her and closed her eyes, the tears running down her face as an unholy wail sounded inside.

*/*/*/

K-mart was finally sleeping. Convinced that Luther had died to force her to go and live with her grandparents, so not only would she have to leave Jill and Claire and now Alice, but Luther's death was her fault. When nothing worked to calm her down, Claire nodded at Jill and at the medical bag they took with them everywhere and held her tightly while Jill shot her full of sedatives. She gradually stopped crying and passed out in Claire's arms. Alice gently took the young girl and sat on the couch with K-mart curled in her arms.

Jill's eyes were bright red and she spoke only in an odd French that Alice barely understood but Claire seemed to be able to converse in.

"_So what now?"_

"_I don't know Jill. I have avoided Wesker all my life, I stay out of his affairs and until recently, he has stayed out of mine. I just don't know."_

"_This is all about distractions. He wants you distracted. K-marts legal status, Luther's death. He wants you off balance."  
_

_Claire nodded. "He wants to kill me. He has an army at his disposal. While this is nothing new, the fact that he can contact and command them at the flick of a switch is. Perhaps it is time to stop running?"_

"_Perhaps it is time to run further away?"_

"_For what purpose? He can find me anywhere, he has infinite resources. He has put this much effort in, he isn't going to stop now, not until his plans run their course."_

"_So no more running?" Jill asked quietly._

_Claire knelt in front of her, took her hands and brought them to her lips. "No more running. Get your laptop out, I need a contract typed up quickly."_

_Jill ran her hand through Claire's long red hair. "No more running." She smiled sadly._

*/*/*/

The presidential suite of the Four Seasons was a quiet flurry of activity. Alice had moved K-mart to the master bedroom, leaving the door open in case she woke up. The knock at the door sounded unusually loud in the quiet. Alice answered the door and ushered the three men in. She took them to the living area where Claire was sat behind a large desk, making notes on a document Jill was creating.

"Mr Mayor, thank you for coming." She held out her hand in greeting.

"Well now, nothing like a clandestine call from a pretty woman to stir up a mans day. So what can I do for you Ms Redfield?"

"You looked me up?" On the mayors nod she spoke again. "Normally when I bribe officials I try to do so with a little tact, I'm afraid that events today have left me with little to offer in the way of discretion."

The mayor held his hand up. "Whoa now, hold on there. I don't know what you have heard or what you think you know, but I have never taken a bribe and I don't intend to start today."

"Then I would like you to think of this as a favour between friends. My life has been threatened and a close associate.." Claire fought down the bile at the words. "a close associate of mine was murdered this morning. Normally I would hire a security firm, but I have no time with which to check credentials of a strange firm in a strange city. My personal security, Alice Parks," She nodded to the blonde that stood as straight as a board behind her, "is licensed to carry a weapon in New York, but she is not licensed to carry concealed in Texas. What I would like from you, my new friend, is to have your people expedite a background check on her and arrange a permit within the next hour. In return for your offer of friendship, I will personally see to it that the running costs of your re-election next year are met. You are behind in the polls, significantly as best I can make out, it's going to be an expensive campaign and you are missing a lot of funding that you previously enjoyed."

The mayor looked to his advisers who both tried to be subtle in their agreement.

"Very well friend. Provided Ms Parks checks out on **all** the points she would need if this was a regular application, I will have the paperwork ready in an hour."

Claire stood up and walked in front of the desk. "I appreciate your help. There is a world class restaurant downstairs, please feel free to enjoy lunch on my account with your colleagues."

"Thank you very much. Strictly off the record, does your security have a weapon already?"

"She does not."

"Very well, an officer will swing by as soon as it is ready, I will see to it that he is at your disposal to take Ms Parks to purchase one securely."

At Claire's nod, the three men walked away, shown to the door by Alice.

"I could have just bought a gun, this is Texas after all." Alice quipped.

"Whatever Wesker is doing, he is going for maximum distraction. Everything we do now, has to be above the letter of the law. I don't want you thrown in jail where you are at risk."

Alice put her arms around Claire. "I can take care of myself, you know that?" She whispered.

Claire sank into the embrace. "Not if the guards are compromised. Besides, I don't want you out of my site."

Ninety minutes later, another knock at the door heralded the arrival of Alice's paperwork. An hour after that, Alice arrived back sporting a top end vest with dual shoulder holsters, several visible magazines and two carefully concealed blades. Covering the ensemble was an odd looking dusty trench coat.

Jill laughed for the first time in hours. "Where did you get that?"

Alice smiled at her. "Charity shop. I saw it in the window, had the cop pull over while I bought it. Figure it would conceal most of what I was carrying."

"The contract is ready Claire, take a last look and let me know what you think." Jill passed the form over and waited for Claire's approval.

"OK, that covers it. Jill and I have an appointment with the bank in twenty minutes. I want you to stay here with K-mart. No one, no police, no hotel staff, no one but us comes in while we are gone OK?"

Alice kissed her and whispered something before she left causing Claire to hold her a little tighter. When she pulled away, Jill took her place, Alice held her close and whispered again how sorry she was. She promised that K-mart would be safe and she would see them both soon.

*/*/*/

At First National bank in Houston Claire walked up to the reception desk where a perky receptionist greeted her.

"I need to see the manager, it's of the utmost urgency."

The young woman pulled a faux sad face. "Oh, I'm so sorry, he isn't free to take walk ins, let me see if I can book you in next week."

"Account number 7779990606"

The receptionist started to enter the numbers. "We value all of our account holders, but even so, the manager cant see anyone without an, oh. Claire Redfield?"

Claire nodded.

"I do apologise, please let me page him now, I'm sure he will rearrange his schedule to meet with you."

Five minutes later, the banks manager ran up to the receptionist, Claire could see a heated and panicked exchange of words, before he straightened up and came over to greet them.

"Ms Redfield? Michael Donnely, what an absolute pleasure, I hope there are no problems with your account."

Claire took his outstretched hand. "That depends Mr Donnely. What I'm about to ask you, you are going to tell me that it's not possible to do with such short notice, so I will save us the trouble and tell you that is it not only possible, but the continuation of my accounts with your bank and every branch of your bank depend on your ability to say yes."

Claire smiled at him as she watched the sweat start to form at his receding hair line despite the cranked up air conditioning.

*/*/*/

Three hours outside of Houston, the rental car pulled up at a trailer park, conspicuous because of the large armored vehicle that trailed them. When they reached the right number, several neighbours were standing outside despite the oppressive heat trying to see what was going on. The screen door to the trailer they wanted also opened and a middle aged couple, aged beyond their years by an unhealthy lifestyle, came out to see them.

"You're sure this will work?" Jill asked as they pulled up.

"They would have won the case, so either we gave up K-mart leaving me distracted or we went into hiding, leaving us open to God alone knows what he came up with next while we were on the run. He took Luther, I wont make the same mistake and lose either of you. They are using a legitimate law firm, Wesker may have got them involved, but he wont be able to persuade them to do something illegal, and for them, this is illegal. They have to do what is in the best interest of their client or what their client wants." Claire opened the door first and stepped out.

"You cant be here." The man spat out. He grabbed behind the door and came out with what Alice thought might have been an air rifle. She casually threw back her duster to reveal her heavily armed torso. He put the gun down and carefully moved his hand in plain site. "You want to talk to us, you have to call our lawyers. We got good lawyers now, you don't get to bully us no more. Get the fuck out of here 'fore I call the cops."

Claire ignored him and stormed up to the trailer, pushing past, finding the phone and yanking it out of the wall.

Alice walked in behind her, Jill followed with her arm around K-mart. The men in the securities van remained outside looking nervous despite their armored protection.

"This is a one time offer. You turn me down, you get nothing and you will never see us again. That truck outside is carrying a dozen suitcases. Inside is a total of ten million dollars. Cash."

The woman spoke up. "What do you want?" Her greedy eyes focused on Claire.

"Plug your phone in, call your lawyers, tell them you are no longer interested in pursuing your case. Sign this document giving up all legal rights and claims to your granddaughter."

Jill handed them the document. They scanned through it, Jill had kept it as clear as possible so they didn't panic and want to speak to their lawyers first. She wanted them focused on the cash.

They looked at each other, the man barely containing himself. "Ten million bucks! Get them suits on the phone, tell em we don't need em any more." He scribbled his name on the document and thrust it back to Jill who had to force herself not to take the corner and hold it away from herself.

She filed it away and listened to the call the woman was making. When she hung up, satisfied they were covered, Jill nodded to Claire. "It's done."

Claire stood at the door way and signaled the security drivers to move in. They backed the truck up as close to the door as they could, jumped out, unlocked the back door and carried in the cases, two at a time. When they were done, Claire thanked them and sent them on their way.

Business concluded, the three women and K-mart started to leave. A voice carried over to them.

"Bet you ain't feelin so smug now bitch."

Claire looked at him and smiled. "I would have paid a hundred times that amount to keep her. Thankfully, you took the first offer." She walked out, putting her arm around K-marts shoulder and leading her away with her. The woman's voice called over next, surprising everyone.

"Dahlia. Are you doing OK honey?" She asked. Alice wanted to vomit at the fake smile she offered.

Claire pulled K-mart closer to her. The young blonde didn't even turn around to respond. "Go fuck yourself."

Claire smiled as they walked to the car. "That's my girl." She settled K-mart in the back while Alice went to the drivers seat.

"Sticks in my throat giving them that money." Jill said.

"Hey, whats going on over there?" One of the neighbours yelled out.

Claire looked at him before she got in the front with Alice. "We just delivered ten million bucks in cash."

His mouth gaped open and several other bystanders started talking amongst themselves. "You're kidding right?"

Claire smiled at him. "Nope, twelve suitcases, just under a million in each one. Have a nice day." She turned to Jill. "One way or another, they wont live long enough to spend it."

Jill looked behind her to the rapidly growing crowd outside the trailer. "You cant beat an angry mob with pitchforks and torches to get justice."

*/*/*/

**A/n Today's chapter was aided by The Whole Price of Blood(demo) &amp; I Promise, both by the Banshees.**

**Angelsgir – Here to help, live to please :)**

**G3n3ralRedfield – Sorry about that, Rain is such a blunt instrument it's hard to write her, the only way is to make her stand out as a villain and we have Wesker for that. Besides, have you ever seen kittens curled up? Always one of them starts a fight.**

**S – Is that short for something? Don't tell anyone, I made myself blush when I wrote it. What didn't you see coming? I think several people saw something coming in glorious technicolor ;)**

**Alexis – How goes the boat building Noah? Just figuring out how to get Wesker to say "We don't gnaw on out kitty" and all will be good!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

They stayed in Houston long enough to have Luther's body released. The police had no leads to speak of, it quickly became a cold case.

The funeral was a quiet affair. Claire had his body cremated. Out of earshot of K-mart she coldly told Jill and Alice that she didn't trust Wesker to leave his body un-disturbed.

Alice started to feel her stomach turn. The idea of Wesker sending people out to dig up his corpse for God knows what reason made her sick.

They arrived back in New York late on Friday night. Alice knew she should make the others eat something and look after themselves but that would mean leading by example and the idea of anything solid sitting in her stomach made her wretch.

Claire kept glancing at Alice out of the corner of her eye. It hadn't been long since Alice had joined their family but she was hyper aware of her moods and reactions. Claire knew it was coming. She shared a look with Jill as Alice numbly rearranged the food in the refrigerator.

Jill knew it was coming as well.

It was inevitable, but they didn't have the luxury of time.

Jill remembered her own delayed reaction to being part of Claire's life. It was shortly after the jail rescue, Claire had gone out to feed, she came back still holding a bloodied piece of cloth. Everything that led up to that moment since meeting Wesker, her brothers horrific death, her family's annihilation, waiting in the cramped festering cell for her own brutal death, vague memories of bodies lining the way out as she followed Claire to her freedom. Jill had struggled against Claire, trying to run for what felt like hours. Claire held her, let her cry until she had nothing left.

Luther joined them next. A runaway slave, beating on deaths door when Claire and Jill stumbled across him. A lifetime of abuse at the hands of men that considered him nothing but chattel. A lifetime of scars etched on his skin from perceived misdemeanors. A lifetime of memories of watching his kinsmen murdered on a whim from cruel white masters. It was within a week of joining his new people that Luther came out of the cloud of disbelief and tried to run. Claire had let him go, despite Jill wanting to follow him. They left him for 3 days, keeping a short distance behind him. When they heard a runaway slave was being held in a town a few miles over, they rode in at night to find Luther tied to a post in the town square. Claire incapacitated the guard standing over him. She released his bonds and knelt down beside him while Jill brought him water. She told him that he was free to leave with or without them, but she truly hoped he would stay with them. Luther asked why she didn't kill the man guarding him. Claire told him that he was doing as he was told. He may be ignorant, but he wasn't a bad man. That seemed to resonate with Luther. He followed them out of town and it was never discussed again.

Luther was not a stupid man, he was, like many of his people uneducated in letters, but he had a keen mind, Jill had taken him under her wing and taught him first to read, then to write, then languages and finally when he passed his first law degree and helped the lawmakers write the laws to change the fate of slaves, Claire threw the full weight of her wealth behind him.

Luther had grown into such an incredible man that Claire was less disgusted with his death than the manner of which Wesker had staged it.

Many years later, when Claire had felt no connection to anyone new in a long time, K-mart stumbled upon them. Her own awakening was not nearly as much to do with living with a vampire and two immortals than the grief she had never been allowed to to share over the death of her mother. The brutality she had endured at the hands of her step father, the benign neglect from her grandparents that probably knew what was going on behind closed doors yet said nothing lest the burden of her existence became theirs. K-mart never really had a meltdown, but she carried a lot of baggage that took months to come out. Luther was a rock to K-mart during that time. Perhaps her lack of father figure and the betrayal of the man who married her mother made her cling to the notion of a perfect father. A position Luther gladly took upon himself. His death would have repercussions on K-mart for a long time to come.

And now it was Alice.

Jill and Luther came from a simpler times. K-mart was a child. She had a feeling that Alice's experience was going to be quite the memorable experience.

And it was starting now.

At the worst possible time. Luther was dead, K-mart and Jill were distraught. Claire was hiding her emotions as she could be heading to a final showdown with a man as strong if not stronger than her.

Claire sighed. It wasn't going to end well, she only wished it would be over with.

K-mart was finally sleeping. Jill had stayed with her for so long, she ended up sleeping as well.

Claire walked over to Alice who was staring out of the window to the quiet street below. "It's late, we should sleep."

Alice nodded and took the hand that Claire held out to lead her to bed.

*/*/*/

She sat bolt upright, barely containing a scream. She felt Claire's hand on her arm and looked over. The streetlight outside flashed against one of Claire's elongated canines causing Alice to snatch her arm away instinctively.

She jumped out of bed, hurrying to put some clothes on, the task taking longer than it should as the dry clothes caught on her sweat soaked skin.

"Alice calm down. Please. Sit down and talk to me a moment."

"I just need some air." She struggled with the last of the clothing.

As she walked out of the bedroom door, Claire made a last grab at her arm.

"Alice you cant go out there."

She snatched it back with more force. "Don't. Just. I need to get out for a while."

Jill came out of K-marts bedroom, pulling the door behind her. "Everything OK?"

"I need to get out for a while. Cabin fever you know?" Alice tried to smile but it came out more like a grimace.

"It's not safe out there for you." Claire tried to reason with her. Jill stayed silent, aware of what was going on.

"Look, I appreciate all you've done, but I can take care of myself and I need some fucking air, so please, Claire, just let me be for a while." She walked to the main door, ignoring the hurt look she had seen on Claire's face. She couldn't deal with this right now. For the last week or so, her life had become a roller coaster of madness, death and betrayal and Alice needed to sit and think.

She grabbed the duster she picked up in Houston to cover her weapons and shut the door quietly behind her, making her way out into the cold New York streets.

"Fuck, we don't have time for this." Claire said.

Jill tutted. "Claire. Come on now. You have to give her space. If she is going to stay, it has to be because she wants to. That means walking away for a while sometimes."

"But now? Jesus fucking Christ, Wesker could be out there. What if he takes her as well? Ungh, we need a plan, he has got to fucking go, I cant fucking live like this. I wish I had manged to kill him when he first changed."

Jill pulled Claire into her arms. "And if wishes were horses cher, you wouldn't have had to live with a donkey for so long n'cest pas?"

Claire sank into her embrace and laughed quietly. "Stay with K-mart. I'm going to follow her, I need to know she is safe."

She walked back to the bedroom, ignoring the strong scent of her lover that clung to everything, threw on some dark clothes, tied her hair back out of her face and left the apartment.

*/*/*/

Alice walked on auto pilot. She may have been heavily armed but New York wasn't the safest place to be at night, so she kept her senses as sharp as she could while she thought about the last month of her life. She strode into Central Park aware as soon as she entered that she was being followed. Thinking it must be Claire, part of her was touched that her lover wanted to protect her and annoyed that she wouldn't give Alice the space and time she needed right now. She turned around to tell Claire to leave and her breath left her lungs.

"Surprise blondie."

Alice stood staring in shock. Rain Ocampo, alive and breathing stood at the end of the tunnel.

"How?" She breathed out. She thought for a minute that perhaps Wesker had turned her into a vampire. She remembered Claire telling her that you needed two vampires to make a third, besides, Luther had said he buried her.

Luther. Of course.

Alice brought her hand to her hip, the cold metal of the weapon reassuring her. "Was it you? Did you kill him?" She snarled out.

"Kill who? It's been a really busy month since your little buddies killed me, hard to keep track."

"Luther. Did you kill him?" She pulled her gun out.

"You mean did I lynch him? Yeap. He cried like a little girl when I strung him up, was fucking embarrassing. I tell you Alice, the company you keep." She shook her head, mocking the enraged blonde. "You wanna know what he said when I put the rope around his neck?"

Alice sneered at her. "I really don't." She pulled her gun up, balanced it with her other hand and shot three times direct to the heart. As she lowered the weapon to the ground, she was aware that Rain was still standing. Rain put her head back and took several sharp breaths, her arms spread to her sides, the muscles in her neck standing out in stark relief. In the dark of the badly lit tunnel, Alice could barely make out something moving down her arms. Something dropped out of Rains fingers and she heard the sound of three pieces of metal hitting the asphalt.

"That just doesn't get old. I've been practicing, shoot myself a couple of times, trying to get used to the pain as they come out again. Nice weapon, you wont be keeping it."

Alice holstered the weapon and ran at her, when she was a few feet away, a shadow appeared from the side behind Rain. Alice stopped, certain that it was Claire, knowing she had never been so glad to see anyone before in her life.

"Hello Alice."

Alice took a step back. "Carlos? Carlos what are you doing here? Get out of here." She ran to him and grabbed him away from Rain and took him further back into the relative safety of the tunnel. "Carlos run, Wesker was the one that tried to kill me, he is the one that's been releasing the virus. I don't know what he told you, but you know I would never do something like that. You know me." She looked into his eyes begging him to believe her. He didn't look right, something metallic caught Alice's eyes and she looked down, there on Carlos chest was some bizarre scarab device, glowing red, she looked up in time to feel Carlos headbutt to her face.

She looked up from the floor, wiping the blood and tears away from her face to see Carlos take his weapon out and aim it at her.

"Carlos, don't."

Rain's voice echoed as she spoke up. "No guns. Wesker was quite clear on that. Take her out the old school way." Carlos looked back to Rain and nodded. He moved back to Alice and lifted his heavy boot and stamped it down where Alice was laying prone.

She rolled backwards missing the kick, she rolled back toward him, grabbing his leg and punching upward to his groin, tugging at the knees, she brought him over her body to land face down. Bringing her arm down, she smashed her elbow into his back and rolled out from under him. This would have been enough to incapacitate anyone, but whatever was fueling Carlos was helping him stay upright. He came at her again, his fists controlled and deadly, using all Alice's training against her.

For every attack she blocked, another seemed to get through, Alice was clearly the better fighter, but her attacks were not slowing him down. The glass on the scarab poking out from his shirt glowed brightly. Alice had an idea. It had been getting steadily brighter the more she hit him, if this was keeping him upright, it needed to come off. She pulled at it and Carlos hissed in pain for the first time. She looked down and realised it was surgically attached, the metal rods coming out of the glass body were sunk into his skin. She tried to grab it again when Carlos elbow broke out of her hold and hit her across the jaw. Alice heard a crack and was sure her jaw was broken. Knowing this was going to end badly if she didn't act, with one desperate yank, she pulled the device and watched sickened as it tore away from his flesh. Carlos dropped to the floor, Alice's arms around him took her to the ground with him. She pulled her arm back to continue hitting him when he looked up at her in confusion. "Alice?"

She started laughing, a deranged laughter brought on by fear and relief. "Yeah Carlos. It's me. How you doing there?" She smiled at him.

He looked around, unaware of where he was and why. Alice was about to explain when Rain stepped up, she pointed the barrel of the gun at Carlos. "I told Wesker you would fail." Without another word, she pulled the trigger.

"No!" Even though she knew it was useless, Alice covered his body with her own. "Oh God Carlos. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." She sobbed and rocked herself over his body.

Rain stood away in disgust. She was about to say something when the approaching sirens reached them.

"See you soon Blondie. You and your new friends." She blew Alice a kiss and ran out into the darkness.

Alice sat there sobbing and holding onto Carlos body. "Alice? Alice, we have to go."

Alice looked up, Claire was tugging at her arm. "Sweetheart we need to leave. Let me take him."

Something in Alice snapped, she held tighter to Carlos body as it cooled in her arms. "Alice please, we cant be here when the police arrive. Let me take his body. Jill will deal with it."

"Get away from him. Deal with it? Deal with it? He has a fucking family. They deserve to know what happened to him. I wont let you taint him as well."

Claire swallowed harshly. "We cant be here Alice, please come with me." She held out her hand.

"Wesker did this. He's a fucking monster." She turned her grief filled eyes to Claire. "You're both monsters. You are the ones that shouldn't be here." She pulled Carlos to her lap, oblivious of the blood and brain matter covering them both.

Claire looked at the entrance to the park and saw the squad cars flying toward them, lights and sirens blazing. She shook her head sadly and moved back into the darkness leaving Alice alone with her fallen friend. She heard the calls of the police and the sounds of many guns being cocked. She hoped Alice would be safe in custody until they could get her out. Until Claire could fix this and bring Alice home.

*/*/*/

"She's not saying anything. Not a word. Not sure what happened down there, but she is pretty beat up as well. We have forensics testing her weapons against the shot fired into the victim."

The desk sergeant looked up to a shell shocked Alice, bloodied and bruised in the standard white coveralls the forensic techs left them with when they took their clothing.

"She didn't ask for a lawyer?"

The lead detective shook his head. "She didn't say a damn thing. Should we send her for a psych eval?"

"No point, this late on a Friday, we wont get one. Put her in county lock up for the weekend, we can see what they wanna do with her on Monday." He looked at her. "If she lives that long. Get her out of here, the bus leaves in 15 minutes. He stamped the paperwork and moved to the next problem.

Alice sat motionless on the bus, chained to the seats, her body ached from the beating she took at the hands of Carlos, each jolt of the prison bus sending pain throughout her body. She looked aimlessly out of the window, trying to remember what her life had been like a month or so past. The one good thing to come out of Wesker's attempt to kill her had been sent away with words that Alice could never take back. She thought of K-mart and wondered what they would say to the sweet girl that Alice had become so fond of, how they would explain Alice's betrayal, why Alice had left them. Part of her ached from the beating, but part of her ached for Claire, she remembered what Claire had said about how when people responded to her, it hurt to be away. She wondered if that pain would go away now Claire was gone or if it would stay to remind her of the red head. No matter the misery, she prayed it was the latter.

The bus came to a grinding halt at the county jail. She didn't remember much of the intake, just the stinging of the shower as it came crashing down to wash the physical reminder of tonight away, rivulets of water cleaning out the bruises and gouges that marred her skin, thankful that as the water slid across her face that it hid the tears. The next thing she was aware of was falling asleep in bright orange coveralls on a mattress that reeked of despair, then thankfully, she slipped into sleep and happier times.

*/*/*/

Alice walked into the bright sunshine, squinting against the pain in her eyes. She felt the skin around her nose and eyes tighten and was sure she looked horrific. Her nose was probably broken from Carlos first attack on her. She forced herself to take her own advice and choked back whatever was served as breakfast, drinking as much water as she could get down. She declined the offer of visiting the doctors on call and decided to try and get some peace and quiet in the exercise yard to work out a plan.

"You get hit by a car?"

So much for peace and quiet. Alice ignored the question and the laughter that accompanied it and kept walking. She felt her arm grabbed and someone turned her around. Wincing at the pain it sent through her already bruised muscles, she looked up to face her tormentor and wanted to laugh at the stereotype of it.

Six feet tall, built like a brick wall, covered in tattoos and a shaved head.

"I asked you a question."

Alice sighed. "No. No car." She went to walk away, unsurprised when the arm grabbed her back again.

"Shame, doing that to a pretty face. How about you and I go somewhere quiet and get to know each other better huh?"

Alice heard the ribald jeers behind her and knew this wasn't going to end well.

"Come on cutie, everyone is someone's bitch, might as well bend over for the best." Alice could hear more jeering and tried to decide if she can get out of this with words alone. 

"Thing is, tempting as that offer is, I don't play bitch for anyone." There was a chorus of dramatic oohs and aahs before her tormentor spoke up again.

"Is that right?"

Alice thinks back on the last few weeks.

_On her knees in front of Claire in the shower, her first time going down on another woman. On all fours on Claire's bedroom floor, Claire pounding into her from behind, her hair wrapped tightly in Claire's fist as she pushes it to the floor, raising Alice's hips higher so she can penetrate deeper. Splayed out on Claire's couch, masturbating for Claire's pleasure. Straddling Claire's lap, riding her fingers, Claire making her do all the work while Alice begged her for release._

She smiled at the large would be suitor in front of her. "Eh, maybe not quite true. I do have a thing for redheads, but as you can see, you are neither red and you don't have any hair, so again, thank you for the offer, but I must respectively decline."

Alice walked away, knowing she didn't have long before the behemoth realised she had been insulted. She felt the movement of air from the sucker punch aimed at her head. She ducked at the last minute, whirling around and placing a series of devastating punches at her attacker. Unfortunately for Alice, her arms were so bruised they didn't reach the intended cranial target and landed with not nearly enough force to down the overweight woman who roared at her and body slammed her to the ground.

She held up her arms as best she could to protect her head, hoping that the guards would intervene before she was hurt too badly. As her arms tired, she realised that they would not get there in time, gradually to the cheers of the crowd, the blows started getting through and all Alice could hope for was oblivion, still unsure as to whether she deserved it.

*/*/*/

The screeching of the gate closing behind made Jill want to vomit. She had never been comfortable in confined spaces, no matter how many years since her own incarceration that should have led to her painful and demeaning death. She walked to the guard on duty, deliberately clicking her heels to get his attention. He looked up briefly and waited for her to get close enough to present herself, he was distracted by one of the monitors in front of him.

Jill frowned, she wasn't overly egotistical but she had dressed specifically to make an impact and it was pretty clear the guard wasn't sending out a gay vibe, so she wondered what the hell was on the screen that was so fascinating. She had a sinking feeling she already knew. She sped up her steps and presented her credentials.

"Jill Valentine, I'm representing Alice Parks. See to it she is brought out immediately please."

The guard looked at her and smiled. "Shes a little busy right now."

Jill saw the minute flinch on the guards face as he looked back at the monitor. Jill was now certain what he was watching. Putting on her best poker face she leaned forward. "I should tell you, we already jacked into the feeds in here, and whatever you can see on your screen at exactly..." She looked at her watch. "9:18, we can see as well. If she dies, you are gonna find yourself on the other side of those screens pretty damn quick. Pretty boy like you? Your next warm and loving embrace is gonna have more body hair than you and a 9 inch cock. Now get her out. Now!"

The guard jumped up and pressed the alert button. Within seconds the screen displayed guards with batons cleaving a path to a supine Alice.

*/*/*/

"Oh Alice." Jill was dabbing at the various cuts and bruises with a number of medical wipes. Alice sat that quietly letting Jill clean her up.

"I didn't think you would come." Alice spoke quietly.

"Pour qoi cher? Because of a few words? Tsk, you will learn."

"She tried to protect me and I called her a monster."

Alice felt the tears start again and didn't stop Jill when she moved Alice's head to her lap. She ran her hands through the dirty and blood matted hair, careful to avoid the cuts she could see, still fresh beneath the blonde hair. "Hush now. Claire is hurting far more from your absence than your words."

"I let her down. I betrayed her."

"Alice, I have seen betrayal, you were hurt and you shut down. We all did it. I think that's why I bought that donkey, I wanted some normalcy. Its probably why Claire didn't say anything when K-mart brought that bedraggled hound back. She has lived a lot longer than we have, but she never forgets what it means to be thrust into this world. We all had our moments, Me, Luther, K and now you."

"I never thought she would come. I thought I wouldn't see you all again. See Claire. She did send you didn't she?" Alice turned such sorrow filled eyes up at Jill it broke her heart.

"Of course she did. She secured your release first thing this morning. She and K-mart are outside waiting for us."

The damn burst on Alice's shattered emotions. For Luther, for Carlos and even for Rain. All of them killed or destroyed because of Wesker's thirst for power. Finally she cried for herself for the life she left through no choice of her own and the life she thought she had lost that she had started building with Claire. Jill held her throughout, waiting for her to calm down.

"Claire will always come. For all of us, she will always come. She will never leave us. You understand now?"

"Take me back to Claire Jill, take me home."

Jill's face lit up, she took Alice's face in her hands, kissing her eyes and her face and finally her lips. "Absolumont ma cherie, absolumont."

She helped Alice change into the clothes she brought for her, leaving the soiled orange behind, crumpled on the floor. Signaling the guard to open the gates, she put Alice's arm across her shoulders and walked her to the exit where to Alice's joy, Claire was waiting with a car.

She looked to her lovers face, Claire's expression was a mix of scared and relieved. She watched as a small blonde head poked out of the car window behind Claire waving frantically and it brought the first smile in days to Alice's face. When she got within reach of Claire, Jill handed her over and Alice sank into the warm caress of Claire's hands running all over her body, soothing her and checking for any serious injuries.

She stopped the hands and whispered in her ear. "I'm alright. I'm OK. I just need to rest, eat, take a bath for a week."

Claire breathed out a laugh into Alice's hair.

"I'm sorry Claire, I'm so very sorry. I should have listened to you, I should have let you deal with it."

"Shh cariad. I'm the one that should be sorry. I knew this was overwhelming you, and I could do nothing. You were right. Carlos deserved better than to disappear, enough good people have left without a trace because of Wesker, I'm so sorry. Stay with us Alice, stay with me. Please."

Alice nodded. "Always." She pressed her damaged lips against Claire's, the pain overridden by the sheer happiness of being back in her lovers arms.

"Come on, lets get that bath started."

They got into the car as Jill drove them home without another word.

*/*/*/

**A/n Today's chapter was moved along by Lana Del Ray, Gods &amp; Monsters.**

**Aliceabernathy96 - This chapter is just for you ;) I was going to take tonight off but when I saw that I made you cry, what could I do? Thank you, truly, I'm glad you are still here reading.**

**MiccaAbernathy – Claire is a total bad ass. I have the biggest crush on her, Ali Larter I can take or leave, but Claire? Ungh, its a crying shame she isn't real. Or if she is, I don't know her. **

**Alexis – Thought you would appreciate the duster lol. Thank you for the compliments. You must know, it means the world to come from you. I adore your writing, even though every time I tell you you accuse me of being sarcastic. But I do, so thank you.**

**Oh, we could have a mutual admiration society going on! Is that the word I was looking for? I remember thinking about a mutual something, I'm sure it was that.**

***kisses for my crazy Saffa* **


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Alice rearranged the bubbles again just to make sure she was suitably covered. Claire had taken her at her word and while Alice sat on the couch being tended to by Jill, Claire had filled the giant tub in her bathroom.

So far there had been a steady stream of visitors bearing gifts of food and drink, company and affection.

Every time it was Claire's turn to visit, she drained some of the water and set the hot tap running again. She could hear the sounds of activity in the apartment until things quietened down and Claire came back in followed by Jill.

"How are you feeling cariad"? Claire sat herself on the side of the tub.

"If you hadn't brought Jill in with you, you could have joined me and found out."

Jill started laughing. Before Alice could say another word, Jill stood up, removed her clothing in record time and slid in the other end. "Why so modest Alice? Did prison teach you nothing about sharing?"

Alice toyed with several responses and reactions before simply smiling and shaking her head. "Well come on in, the waters fine."

Claire got a wicked look on her face, before disrobing and sliding in behind Alice. "I don't mind if I do, thank you Alice."

This time Alice just laughed and leaned back against her lover. "Thank you for coming to get me."

Claire nuzzled her neck, drawing the hair away. "I will always come for you." She looked at Jill. "Both of you."

Jill dipped her head in acknowledgment. "Do you have any idea how Wesker managed to reanimate a corpse?" She asked Alice.

"I can only make some guesses."

"That's better than what we have now." Claire spoke from behind her.

Alice sighed. "The storyline for the zombies and the vampires, or the half breeds if you will, was from the mid-sixties. It was assumed that pockets of infection were springing up because of biochemical weapons built during WW2. No country would admit to starting such a program, my guess is that they were all starting something similar and no one wanted to admit it, so they brushed it under the carpet. Wesker's company was built off the backs of these outbreaks. There was never a board of directors, there was only department heads, the heads changed regularly, they were the only ones to have any direct dealing with Wesker. I assume this is how Wesker managed to take over at different times, no one knew what he looked like."

"I can help with that." Claire interrupted. "My guess is that Wesker is doing the same thing that we do. Every twenty five years, we register the birth of a child. Twenty five years later, we take on the identity and register a new one. If Wesker did the same, he could pass himself off as the heir and continue working. How come you dealt with him directly?" She asked Alice.

"He has an entire army, only the senior members dealt with him. I never did anything out of the ordinary for him, but I know a few others were given singular missions for him. They never spoke of it. They often didn't come back to the regular groups." Alice offered.

"Anyway, after what I found out about the virus being released, its my belief that it was Umbrella that was responsible for releasing them and then building a private army off the fear it invoked. It's possible he didn't just release them, he made them."

"Can you think why he was doing that?" Jill asked.

"Why does Wesker do anything?" Claire asked. "Money, power. If he could make a biochemical weapon that would bring a country to it's knees, he is closer to being the God that he thinks he is. Sell the weapon to the Chinese, if Japan doesn't play nicely, he refuses to sell to them as well. Sell to the Americans, show the Russians what the USA has, the Russians will buy it. Wesker can demand any price, any law he wants voted in, he can play the world like a fucking chessboard."

"I think the zombies we hunted, the half breeds, I think they were mistakes. I think he was trying to create something, what we killed were the failures. I think Rain is probably the first success. Imagine, a soldier that cant be killed by a few bullets or a sword. Couple that with the random outbreaks of the t-virus, the country would be crippled. All the main powers would be desperate to get their hands on it." Alice shrugged. "That's my best guess."

"So why now is he trying to kill me? Why am I suddenly a threat to him?" Claire wondered aloud.

"It's obvious. They cant be killed. But you can kill them. Also, where do you think these virus came from, yes he engineered them, but if he could do it, so could anyone. Unless they don't have the starting point." Jill spoke up while she washed her hair, much to Alice's amusement.

"And what starting point is that?" Alice asked.

"My blood." Claire realised. "Of course. Wesker cant give his blood to someone the way I can. There has to be a connection, an emotional connection that the other person has to respond to. He gave up that ability when he consumed one of our own. We kept tabs on each other over the years, all the offspring. When we realised we were a threat to each other. The ones that had consumed others were slowly driven mad over the years, usually they were killed by showing themselves for the monsters that they were."

Alice stiffened at the word. She gradually relaxed when Claire started running her hands over her body. Surprisingly Jill was also touching her. Alice tilted her head at Jill.

"She knows you are upset. It's instinctive that she wants to touch you, to calm you." Claire whispered to her.

Jill smiled at her. "And you are hot and wet, that's just a bonus though."

Alice rolled her eyes and flicked water at the smirking brunette. "How do you know? I'm not connected to you the way you and Claire are am I?"

"Mais oui cher. The only difference is you haven't taken from Claire yet, you don't have the aging benefits that I do."

"Is that the only side effect?" Alice asked, turning to Claire.

"Jill has heightened senses, she is faster than most humans, not unnaturally so, but faster reflexes, she is better able to tune into people, what kind of people they are. A gift she had long before I met her."

Jill bowed her head at the compliment.

"So if I took from you, that's what would happen to me?"

Claire wrapped her arms around her lover. "That, plus most of the aches and bruises would be gone by the morning."

Alice nearly gave herself whiplash turning around to face Claire. "Are you serious? You can heal people?"

"Certain people, people like you and Jill, K-mart and Luther. I cant heal you past a certain point, but regular damage like you have, Luther and Jill never had so much as a cold and we traveled through the Black Death. I cant make you immortal, but I can keep you alive." Claire had an intense look on her face, willing Alice to ask.

"What does it involve?"

Jill leaned forward in the tub and brought Alice's face forward. "Drink from Claire. Taker her blood into your body and you will never age, you will never suffer disease or pain, you will be just as you are now. But better." She smiled.

Alice turned back to Claire who was still staring at her. "And what do I have to do?" She whispered.

Claire brought their foreheads together, kissing Alice gently. "Simply ask."

Alice took a deep breath before she nodded.

Claire choked out a sob in relief. "Thank you." She peppered Alice's face with kisses. "Tonight then?"

"Tonight." Alice replied.

"Come on. I'm pruning and starving and Alice is starting to look like a chamois leather." Jill muttered, standing out of the water, completely un-concious of her state of dress. "Lets get some lunch and figure out how to bring this fucker down once and for all. And please, take those stupid grins of your faces, you look ridiculous." She threw a pair of towels at them and left the bathroom.

*/*/*/

"Smells great K, what you got cooking?" Jill leaned over the young blonde at the stove.

"Someone had to learn to cook, you two were never going to, Luther was teaching me."

Jill wrapped herself around K-mart and squeezed her. "Ma petite fils. Je suis tres, tres desole." She kissed her head, leaving her lips pressed against her hair.

K-mart turned around and fell into Jill's embrace. "How long does it hurt Jill?" She whispered.

"A little less every day cherie, it will always hurt, but one day, it becomes a part of who you are, that way Luther will live on always in your memories and stories. When you make food for people you love, when you recite a quote that he taught you, he will be with you and when you are finished growing, you will be who you are, because a man that loved you beyond all things, shaped you into who you become."

K-mart broke down and started sobbing. Alice stood up quickly and took over the food before it was ruined, upsetting the girl further. A few minutes later, she pulled back, wiped her eyes and joked. "Give me that. If you are anything like these two, we will end up with take out, again!"

Alice laughed and rustled her hair. "You got that right. I cant cook for love or money. If I was sick of take out, I would mooch off of Carlos. His wife was Egyptian, she loved to cook and they always had enough. He would tease me that it was because she knew I was coming, that I was unable to look after myself, so she liked to be careful."

"How long were you two friends?" K-mart asked.

"Carlos and I were friends back in the military. I'm godmother to his little girl. It was the proudest day of my life when he asked me." She smiled at the young girl, desperately trying to show her that it was OK to be happy when remembering the dead. "Luther was home schooling you wasn't he?"

K-mart nodded.

"Would you like me to take that over? You might be teaching me a few things for a while, but I can probably catch up."

K-mart threw herself into Alice's arms. "I would really, really like that."

"OK then, lets get this Wesker business out of the way, then you can catch me up." She kissed her head.

"K, I was stirring this like you showed me, but smoke. Why is there smoke? What the fuck. I didn't do anything!" Jill backed away as K-mart grabbed the pan and moved to the window.

"You burn lunch K? That's not like you, you OK?" Claire walked in on the drama.

"It wasn't me! I left Jill alone with it for two frickin minutes."

"There's your problem, never trust a gypsy to feed you. Before Luther came along, you wouldn't believe some of the things we ate when we couldn't get a tavern somewhere."

"Wagon kill is perfectly acceptable sustenance."

"Oh that's just gross." Alice laughed.

"Beggars and choosers. Besides, you lived a lot longer than me, you never learned to cook."

Alice remembered her thoughts from the plane. "Why do you eat? She asked Claire.

Claire was sorting through take out menus. "Because I get hungry?"

"But, you, I mean.." She looked awkwardly at K-mart.

K-mart laughed. "I know what she is, I know what that involves. It's OK." She patted Alice's arm.

"I think my blood requires blood to keep functioning. The rest of me, requires food for the same reasons you do. I can get fat, I can get sick if I eat too much. Honestly its a bit of a mystery. It's not like I can get blood drawn and have tests run. Can you imagine the fuss that would cause? None of us ever felt like going into science, until K goes to university and decides what she wants to do, its all a bit of guesswork."

"You and Luther both went into Law?" Alice asked Jill.

"Mais non. I went into where the money was. Luther loved law and he was very good at it. We need to know how to be self sufficient, knowing the many laws of the many lands that are forever changing, seemed like a good plan. I've dabbled, but I don't really get on with it."

Claire burst out laughing. "That's an understatement. Alice I have bailed her out on contempt charges so many times it defies belief. Keep in mind we are not talking about capital cases here. Something as simple as property laws and she has upset a judge badly enough to thrown in jail for contempt."

Alice and K-mart laughed, Jill muttered something in french that sounded like she was questioning Claire's heritage.

"What about you Alice? What did you do in the military?" K-mart asked.

"I was in the regular services when I got a chance to take the course for special forces. I specialised in computer engineering."

Claire looked at her. "Could you get us into Wesker's system?"

Alice shrugged. "I thought about that. It's possible, but I don't think we would find anything before the system detected an intrusion. There is one thing that might be worth a shot. If I log on as Rain, its possible she was never de-activated. She wont have the highest level of access, but that may have changed now."

"You know her password?" K-mart asked, fascinated.

"Oh yeah, she was all fingers and thumbs, I had to log her in many times. She wont have changed her password, she barely remembered it to start with. We had to log in each time we returned from a mission, register reports, what we found, that kind of thing. It cant hurt to try."

"OK, food is on its way. You want to try that now?" Jill spoke up.

Alice shook her head. "No, very early or very late, if I do it during the day and by any chance she is logged in, it will set off alarms. I am going to have to spoof the IP address as it is to make the queen think it is legitimate."

"Who the hell is the queen?"

Alice looked at Jill. "Ah of course, you wouldn't know. Umbrella is run by an incredibly sophisticated server. It has partial intelligence, the engineers are working on making it the first AI system on the market. Full control over the entire company. Personally I think its a recipe for disaster, but so far, its running well."

The afternoon was spent coming up with ideas for dealing with Wesker. So far the only thing they could say for certain was taking Rain out of the equation was the best way to get to Wesker. What ever his plan was, Alice was certain that involved Rain and without her, his plan was useless. She also planned to break into Umbrella and get the information she needed to prove that Wesker himself was releasing the virus into the world. That would shut his company down and take away the most of his resources. Without Umbrella, Wesker was on a level playing field with Claire.

Alice was prepared to blow the entire hive sky high if she had to.

*/*/*/

"K-mart, I am begging you, don't make me do this."

"Claire, you are being ridiculous. It wont kill you." K-mart responded, sounding very much like the adult to Claire's whining.

"You don't know that? It's not worth the risk."

"You did promise." Alice spoke softly.

"You did. You said we could do whatever K wanted to." Jill smirked.

"Pick something else. How about we go to a firing range? You said you wanted to learn to shoot."

Alice looked at her in horror. "Jesus Claire, she's 14! What's wrong with you?"

"How about driving? You want to learn to drive don't you? Look the snow is mostly gone, it's probably quite safe."

Jill burst out laughing. "OK that's enough. You promised, now sit down, be quiet and deal with it." She nodded to K-mart. "Go ahead kiddo, lets get started."

K-mart snuggled up to Claire and pressed play. Alice sat on the end of the couch covering her mouth with her hand.

"Laugh it up blondie." Claire groused as the opening credits to Twilight started.

Fifteen minutes into the movie, Claire couldn't take it any more. "Look at that? Really?"

"Be quiet." Alice chided her.

"No really, I mean what was she thinking?"

"Be quiet." Jill glared at her.

"I'm just saying..."

"Shut up!" Jill, K-mart and Alice shouted at her.

Forty minutes into the film, K-mart was now resting her head on Jill's lap, Alice had moved down the couch and was sitting next to Claire. Claire felt her t-shirt being pulled away from her skin. Smiling, thinking Alice was going to take advantage of her in the dark, she suddenly jumped up.

"What the fuck Alice?"

Jill started laughing at Alice trying to get a flashlight under Claire's clothes.

"I was just checking to see if you glittered."

"Guys be quiet, this is the best part." K-mart told them off.

Claire folded her arms across her chest, scowling and ignoring Alice's attempts to hold hands with her.

"Don't be such a baby, give me your hand."

"No, go away."

"I bet Edward would hold Bella's hand if she wanted to."

Jill was shaking with suppressed laughter.

"C'mon."

"Stop it. I mean it Alice."

"Guys! Knock it off, don't make me separate you. C'mon its nearly over."

"Thank God." Claire mumbled.

"The second one was the best one anyway."

"Saints preserve us." Claire groaned and buried her face in the cushions.

*/*/*/

Several hours later, K-mart finally started yawning. Even Alice was relived by this point.

"Are you going to stay with Jill tonight?" Claire asked her as she straightened up the lounge.

"No, I want to stay here."

"K, I think you..."

"No. I told you the other day, I cant keep moving around cos you want to get laid. Either get over yourself and get on with it, or take a vow of celibacy, but I am staying.." She walked to her bedroom. ".. right here. G'night guys, thanks for watching the movies with me." She waved to them all and shut the door behind her.

"Put up or shut up Redfield." Jill laughed. She grabbed her purse and headed to the door.

"Jill, stay up here for now."

Jill glared at her.

"I'm serious, I don't want us separated. Why do you think I didn't push K-mart. Just for a while, until we get settled again."

Jill looked pained. Even from here she could feel the emotions building between Alice and Claire and knew damned well what would end up happening.

"You do remember about how this works right? You get aroused, I feel it? And now you want me to sleep next door to you? Bobs gonna burn out, I just know it." She sighed and put her purse back down before slumping on the couch.

Claire moved to stand next to Alice, her hands already running up and down her side. Alice turned her head and kissed her, meaning only to connect gently. She felt the spark between them second their lips touched.

"Oh my God, I am not going to survive tonight." Jill complained from the couch.

Claire laughed. "You could watch the third movie, that should take your mind of it."

"I swear, Luther is out there laughing at me right now."

Claire smile sadly. "I hope so cher, I really hope so."

Alice tugged her hand and walked with her to the bedroom door. "Will she be OK?"

"She'll live, she may not talk to you for a few days, but she will live."

Alice kissed her on the neck, biting gently. "She could stay." She whispered seductively, unsure of where that thought came from.

Claire's blue eyes looked like fire to Alice right then, her body was rigid and Alice wanted nothing more than to crawl into her arms and agree to anything.

Claire's hand sunk into Alice's short blonde hair, tugging her closer. "Are you sure?"

"It seems only right she should be here tonight. Doesn't it?"

Claire nodded and looked to Jill who was now watching them curiously. She moved her hand to the small of Alice's back and guided her toward the seated brunette.

Without a word, Alice walked over, raised Jill's head up and dropped down to place a slow, open mouthed kiss on her lips. There was a sound behind her, she looked over to Claire and saw that look of intensity that first got her on her knees in the shower. She turned back to Jill, took her hand and walked her back to the bedroom.

She noticed a look pass between Jill and Claire as she walked passed. Claire finally looked like the predator that Alice knew she was and Jill was responding in kind.

*/*/*/

**A/n It's entirely possible that the next words I write will be: The next morning...**

**That's not to tease anyone, just to say that I am not sure I can do the scene justice. Three ways are a lot of fun in practice, but writing them can sometimes read like an instruction manual. So who knows.**

**Also, this every night updating might take a break for a night or so. Honestly I was going to take a break tonight, but Alexis made me feel guilty. Tomorrow, crazy train permitting, I am going to try and train my newly purchased copy of Dragon Text to Type to understand me so I can write without my fingers feeling like I shut them in the car door. **

**On the bright side, if I can train it, then I can go back to night updates and possibly more stories. Which might be fun :) Either way, tomorrow or the night after for next update.**

**angelsgir - The Duster (note the caps) had to appear at some point. I think its in the handbook of RE fanfic. Plus she really wears it well doesn't she?**

**SlytherinSlayer21 – Thank ye kindly!**

**katgensen93 – Honestly if I had a $ for every woman that said I left her deeply satisfied... Your absence was noted, however you are back now and all is forgiven. **

**alexis payton – Jill's donkey is quite the sight to imagine eh lol. Thank you my darling penguin, your words as always mean so much. I like what pops into your head. Not when you email me, then it is just crazy gibberish about your drunken debaucherous life, but when you write these characters, or any of the characters you choose to analyse, you figure them out so well, you land a depth to them that I could not compare to. **

**Oh and you pissed Starrh off by telling her she had a giant vagina. Better get that boat sorted.**

**StarrH – Hey stinky! Can I call you stinky? I am glad that I rate better than a shower :) Thank you for the kind words. Your faith in me is both touching and hilarious, I shall try not to make a mess of it! We are coming up to the end shortly, I do have it sketched out, so it should make sense. Sorry about Luther, his death was a necessary evil.**

**I did wonder where you got to. I figured you were headed down to the coast to wait for "Noah" I was going to tell you not to bother, $10 says her boats leaks, and isn't nearly as big as she claims it is, if you know what I mean.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Claire and Jill had mentioned an emotional connection between them all several times, Alice had seen it working, when Jill and Luther had complained the day after she had first slept with Claire. When Jill would touch her when she had become upset at something. She had yet to feel it for herself. She remembered watching Claire kiss Jill in the kitchen. Not the casual peck on the lips that they all seemed to share, but a kiss that held passion, she was surprised to feel no jealousy in the act, rather she felt mildly aroused and at the time put it down to voyeurism. In the short time she had known Jill, the brunette had been caring with her, affectionate even. At first she thought it was because Claire had feelings for her, but when she had been alone with Jill, the affection was still tangible.

Alice was far from being uptight about sex, but porn had never really interested her, she could understand the appeal to others, but for her, watching sexual activity between others did very little for her.

Which is why she was now starting to understand what Jill had complained about. As she sat on the bed, looking to her lover and Jill standing by the bedroom door, trading kisses and running their hands slowly over each other she was aroused beyond anything she expected to be. She knew of other women that found two women making out erotic, but she never saw the fascination herself. But sitting here and feeling her skin come alive was forcing her to rethink her position.

She imagined it was two completely different women in their place and it meant nothing to her. It was clear to Alice her response was because it was Claire.

She was also aware of the equality between the two of them. Alice never thought of herself as a submissive lover, quite the opposite, but every encounter she had shared with Claire involved the red head in the dominant position. Something that apparently didn't extend to the brunette. As Claire pulled Jill closer to her, she caught Alice's eyes, there was a longing there that Alice knew was directed at her, a desire that was for Alice and Alice alone. Regardless of Claire's feelings for Jill, it was Alice she was staring at as she kissed the brunette and Alice was turned on immeasurably.

She watched them wrapped around each other, their hands pulling at each other and pushing away in equal measures. Claire whispered something before kissing her one last time and letting go of Jill who moved over to Alice.

Jill reversed their position from earlier and lifted Alice's face up with one hand while drawing the other down the side of her face. She bent at the waist and drew their lips together, unlike when she had been with Claire, Jill took control of the kiss, speeding them up, slowing them down, overpowering Alice's tongue with her own. Claire had switched the main light off after shutting the door, she was now moving around the large bed, setting various lights to a dim position, all the while, watching Alice. Alice could feel the arousal coming from Claire and knew it was from watching her being taken by Jill.

The bed dipped behind Alice and she felt Claire's hands on her waist, drawing upwards and gradually removing her clothing, careful of the various bruises scattered around her pale skin.

She felt Jill's lips move to her neck and Claire's hands pull her head backwards exposing her throat. While Jill placed a series of bites across the sensitive skin, Claire moved to the floor, kneeling in front of her and started to remove her shoes, her socks and worked up to undo her pants.

Jill stood up, taking Alice with her. As she continued to kiss Alice, bringing her hands up to unbutton her shirt and slide her hands across the silk covering Alice's breasts, Claire pulled the denim down her legs, balancing her as she stepped out of them.

When Claire stood back up and moved behind her, Jill dropped to her knees and kissed across the middle, being sure to kiss every bruise across her ribs as she did so. Claire wrapped her arms around Alice, turning her head to kiss her, "Are you OK?" She whispered. At Alice's nod, she deftly slid the shirt down her arms before returning to remove the bra she wore. She raised Alice's arms above her head and placed them around her own neck before running her hands back down to her breasts. As she took the full weight of them in her hands, Jill stood back up and ran her tongue over the extended nipples that Claire continued to manipulate with her hands.

Alice was left standing only in her underwear and had to reconsider her status as a submissive lover. Jill and Claire showed no signs of undressing and Alice couldn't bring herself to question it.

"Are you ready cariad?" Claire spoke directly into her ear.

Alice kissed her again. "I'm ready." Part of her was nervous but the rest of her floated in a haze of lust. She watched through half closed eyes as Claire brought her hand up across Alice's throat and leaned over her shoulder to bite into her wrist. Avoiding the main veins, the blood flowed sluggishly from the wound and without any help, Alice grabbed the wrist and instinctively brought it to her mouth.

Claire hissed in reaction at the suction on her wrist, the breath pushing across Alice's ear as the blood that kept Claire alive flowed into Alice, binding them completely. Alice felt a surge in arousal and knew it must be coming from Jill who began to bite down on her shoulder, on her neck, up to her ear. As Claire's blood ran down her throat, she felt her body warming from the inside and with less discomfort than she expected, her body began to repair itself from the various beatings it had sustained.

When Claire gently pulled her wrist away from Alice with a wet sucking noise, her head was yanked around and Jill's mouth was back on hers, her tongue thrusting into her mouth, taking what she wanted.

Claire moved aside and took a bandage wrap from her pocket and deftly placed it over the wound on her wrist while Jill forced Alice down to the bed and lay beside her, not once stopping her almost violent assault on Alice's mouth. When the blood was finally settled in her system, Alice felt her arousal soar, she was part of both Jill and Claire now and wanted nothing more than to give herself over to them both. Jill moved her hand to the flimsy cloth covering Alice's sex and began stroking her from the outside. She felt Claire kneel on the bed and remove the final barrier that left her naked, Claire ran her hands up the outside of her legs before dropping to the inside of her thigh and spreading her legs wide for Jill who wasted no time in entering her.

Alice cried out but found her sounds swallowed by Claire who replaced Jill in kissing her, Claire's hands squeezed her breasts roughly in time to Jill's thrusting fingers. Claire pulled Alice's leg back and rested it on her across her knee, when Claire moved her knees apart, Alice was left exposed and her desire climbed higher still.

"God I love to watch you like this." Claire spoke into the quiet. She felt Claire's hand leave her breasts, one hand working into her blonde hair, pulling her head back, the other sliding between her thighs from behind. She felt Jill running her fingers upwards to spread her wetness and circle her clit, when Claire's fingers began to slide inside and spread her wetness backward Alice knew what was coming next.

"Don't, I've never..."

Claire interrupted her protest by placing a kiss to Alice's bruised lips. "Shh, relax, I've got you. Do you trust me?"

"Completely." Alice began to relax, she could feel the excitement from both Jill and Claire and it pushed her higher and beyond any safe boundaries she had set for herself. Claire was obviously turned on watching her with another woman and Alice ceased to care.

Claire watched as Alice closed her eyes in desire, smiling she looked to Jill. "Now."

Jill matched her fierce smile and slammed her fingers into Alice from the front. Alice's eyes shot open and looked at Claire just in time for Claire to push her fingers into Alice from behind.

"Oh fuck yes." Alice cried out.

Every time Jill's fingers pushed in, Claire pulled out, when Claire entered her again, Jill pulled out.

Alice grabbed wildly at Jill's hair, kissing her desperately, she turned her head and sloppily kissed Claire behind her. Her moans grew louder and louder the harder they took her.

She felt Claire pull out of her, leaving her strangely empty, when Claire's hands grabbed her hips and moved her upwards, Jill slid down and lay on her back. Claire manipulated her until she was straddling Jill's mouth, when she dropped down and felt the warmth of Jill's mouth between her legs, Claire pushed her forward so Jill could reach underneath her and enter her again. When Jill was settled, Claire picked up the rhythm from earlier.

Feeling her lovers fingers sliding against each other through the thin wall that separated them while she wantonly rode against Jill's mouth finally pushed Alice over the edge and she screamed.

As Alice came back to her senses, she watched as Claire lay down and leaned over her to kiss Jill, knowing her taste and scent was all over Jill's face. She felt her blood start to roar and the lust came back full force. She could hear the groan from Claire as she tasted Alice, knowing it wouldn't be long before Claire was between her thighs tasting her directly.

When Claire pulled away from Jill, she looked down to Alice laying prone between them. "How do you feel?"

"Stronger." Alice smiled.

"You're gonna need it." Jill laughed and kissed her chastely once more and left the two lovers in peace.

Before the door had closed behind Jill, Alice was lost in Claire again as the redhead predictably shifted down her body to taste Alice again.

*/*/*/

Alice woke up the following morning, surprised that Claire had already left the bed. She was starting to wonder if anything wore the red head out. She looked under the sheet at her naked body, surprised and happy that the bruises and cuts had all but faded. She stretched tentatively and found herself mildly sore, but better than she had felt in weeks.

She followed the sound of talking to the kitchen and found K-mart attempting to cook breakfast.

"Good morning." Alice spoke from the doorway.

Claire's eyes lit up at seeing her and she opened her arm out for Alice to step into. Placing a gentle kiss on her lovers mouth, Alice sat down on Claire's lap and looked over to a groaning Jill.

"Ungh, enough. Seriously, we need a bigger house. I think I broke Bob."

"Who's Bob?" K-mart asked as she moved the bacon around.

The three adults mumbled something as Alice grabbed the coffee.

"So, we need to find Rain and take her out of the picture." Claire sipped from her coffee.

K-mart stopped what she was doing and looked up. "Whats going on? Why are you talking about this in front of me, you never talk about this kinda shit in front of me."

Claire took a deep breath. "Because it involves you. K-mart I need to send you away for a while, just until this is finished."

"And what if something happens to you?" K-mart snapped at her.

"K-mart, sweetheart, nothing is going to happen to me, but I need to be able to move freely and I cant do that if I am worrying about your safety all the time. Do you understand?" She asked the young girl.

"No, I don't. I think this is a stupid plan." K-mart dropped the pan and stormed out being sure to slam her bedroom door.

"That could have gone better." Jill quipped.

"It went about as well as I thought it would." Claire sighed and got up to follow the angry teenager.

*/*/*/

"Can I come in?" Claire stood at the doorway, she looked sadly at K-mart who was trying her best not to cry.

"I guess."

Claire shut the door behind her and sat down on the edge of the bed. "I'm not sending you away, you know that right?"

K-mart shrugged.

"K, come on now." She held her arms open and the young girl resisted as much as she could before the tears started and she fell into them.

"I don't want to lose you as well Clare Bear." The rarely used nickname only came out when K-mart was very upset.

"I wont lie to you my sweet girl, this is dangerous, but we have a better chance of coming out of this in one piece if we do it on our terms. And that means, putting you somewhere safe, out of harms way."

"I still think its a stupid plan." K-mart sniffled.

Claire laughed quietly. "Possibly, but its all we have right now. I'm going to send you to Canada. We have an emergency ID for you that puts your age at nineteen. I booked you into a hotel in the middle of nowhere, no one knows about this, not even Wesker, I am sure of that. Everything was paid for in cash, there is no way to trace this back to me. When this is all over, I will come and get you. Here." She pulled a notepad out of her pants and handed it over.

"What's this?"

"This is something you need to memorise on the plane, then destroy it. I mean it, burn it or eat it if you have to ."

K-mart giggled. "What is it?"

"It's your future should anything happen to me. Which it wont." She added quickly. "This is my security box in Switzerland, it has all the details of every account, all the property paperwork, all my contacts for documents, everything you need to live your life."

"So if you forget to come and get me, I'm totally going shopping."

Claire laughed, louder this time. 'I fully expect you to. Jill is going to take you to the airport and put you on a plane. I made arrangements for Rembrandt to fly with you, he wont be crated. You will have to dig your make up out, make yourself look older, but this ID is perfect, you wont have any problems with it. There will be about 15 security agents that I trust flying with you, they will look out for you. They have rooms at the hotel and are at your beck and call. Don't go out without them, ever, I mean it K, I'm trusting you not to do anything stupid."

"I wont Claire. How long before you come to get me?"

"I don't know cher, a few days, a month. But I give you my word, as soon as Wesker is dealt with, we will come and get you. Remember, if anyone comes to you that isn't me, Jill or Alice, you run OK? You have a passport, you head to Switzerland, take what you need and you run. I will find you."

K-mart started crying again and Claire held her while she got it out of her system. When she was all cried out, she got up and sucked in a deep breath. "I wont let you down."

"You never could K, you never could." Claire hugged her one last time and left her to pack.

*/*/*/

After Jill had left with K-mart, something that took longer than Claire would have liked, K-mart had spent some time telling Alice how amazing Claire was and how she should cherish her and so many hallmark cliches Claire didn't know whether to laugh or cry at her young friend. Finally she hugged them both and Jill took her to the waiting cab.

"So you think you can do this?" Claire was wringing her hands.

"One way to find out." Alice fingers flew across the keys, when she had the secured IP connection she instigated a connection to Umbrella using Rain's credentials to get in. The familiar logo of Umbrella came up on the screen, spinning for nearly 30 seconds leaving Claire certain that the first part of their plan had failed when finally it stopped spinning and Rain's profile came up.

"OK, well, firstly that's not where Rain lives." Alice pointed to the address on the monitor."

"You're sure?" Claire asked.

Alice nodded. "Look at that address. That's the warehouse district, Rain may have been a thug, but she liked to flaunt her wealth and Umbrella paid well. She wouldn't be caught dead here." Alice scribbled the address down along with the phone number listed. She checked to see Rain's computer status and logged off quickly.

"Why did you log out?" Claire asked.

"She doesn't have any clearance, we wouldn't find anything about Umbrella and what they are doing. But this address is a damn good start. Plus, with her phone number, I can set a trace on it, if she goes near this address, then we know where she is. Take her out, then we can work on Wesker."

"I gotta say Alice, that's fucking hot." Claire smirked.

Alice looked at her lover and cocked her eyebrow. "What is?"

Claire leaned into her, climbing onto her lap and kissing her. "You, the computer skills. Smart chicks are hot."

Alice laughed when she realised Claire was deadly serious. "You like that huh? Does that mean I get to be on top this time?"

Claire appeared to be considering it. "I don't know, would you like that? Hmm? Would you like me to get on my knees for you Alice."

Alice moaned low in her throat, Claire was writhing on top of her, Alice imagined what it would be like to be in control of someone like Claire.

"You want me to bend over for you baby?" She knelt up and rubbed herself across Alice's breasts, whispering seductively. "You want me to get on all fours while you strap one on and take charge?"

Alice growled and surged forward, holding Claire in place, she carried her toward the bedroom kissing her frantically as Claire ground against her. She kicked the door open, dropped Claire on the bed and reached for the drawer next to the bed.

"Roll over." She commanded.

As Claire rolled on to her stomach, Alice dropped her pants and attached the harness, breathing heavily as Claire pushed herself forward, raising her hips in the air. Alice finished adjusting the straps, reaching around to open Claire's jeans she ripped them open and pushed them down to her knees. Not bothering with the underwear, she simply pushed it to one side and buried herself in her lover.

"Apparently I do." Alice spoke breathlessly as she drove harder and harder, relishing the noises coming from Claire.

A few minutes later, she grabbed Claire's hair in her fist and pulled backwards. She leaned forward to the red head could hear her. "Get yourself off for me."

She heard the change in breathing as Claire started to come, straining her muscles to keep the frenetic pace she pushed hard into her, sealing their bodies together as Claire fell into the aftershocks. When she was finished, she withdrew slowly and helped Claire to turn over. She leaned forward and kissed her softly, waiting for her to come back to herself.

"Tell me what you want cariad." Claire breathed out.

Alice ran her hand into Claire's hair and gripped it again. She smirked at Claire. "I want you on your knees baby."

Claire laughed, the sexiest sound Alice had ever heard. She watched as her lover dropped to her knees in front of her, never losing eye contact, she moved her hand to the inside of Alice's thigh and as she began to stroke, she took Alice completely into her mouth.

"Oh sweet Jesus."

*/*/*/

Jill looked up from her newspaper and looked out of the window in confusion. "You taking the scenic route?"

The cab driver ignored her.

"Hey, you listening?" She banged on the glass. The doors slid into the locked position and Jill had a sinking feeling. They turned into an old and empty junkyard where they rolled to a stop. The cab driver spoke up from the front. "Get out."

"I don't fucking think so, what the hell is going on?"

He turned to the back seat and pointed at gun at Jill. "I said, get out."

"First fucking time I heard of a cabbie rolling the passenger." She got out and shut the door, confused when the driver backed out the way he came.

Jill grabbed her phone. "I do not like this, I do not like that at all." No reception. "Fuck. We pay a fucking fortune for these phones and for what?" She tapped the glass.

"Don't be so hard on the cell company, it's not their fault." A voice came out of the darkness.

"You!"

"Alice and breathing." Rain dropped the gadget she was holding. "Go ahead, you have reception back now. Bet I can get to you before you can unlock your phone."

Jill frantically started punching in the code when a shock-wave of pain resonated through her kneecap. She dropped to the floor, phone skidding away and she howled in pain. She looked up at Rain holding a metal bar next to her. She felt the bile rise to her throat when she realised what she had planned.

"Wesker said he hired you to do something for him a few years back. Said you didn't hold up your end of the deal, so told me to make sure you had your sentence carried out. No idea what he is talking about, honestly I rarely do, but he was pretty clear on how he wants me to kill you. Gotta say lady, you musta really pissed him off." She brought the pipe down against Jill's shoulder causing her to scream out again, the sound echoing malevolently across the many rusted cars and kitchen appliances.

*/*/*/

Alice sat on the couch half dressed setting up the trace on Rain's phone, she turned around when Claire came out of the bedroom, her hair wet from the shower. "Hi." She smiled.

Claire smirked at her. "Don't think that's going to become a habit stud."

Alice laughed, a joyous sounds that lifted Claire's heart. "We'll see."

"You get the trace set?"

Alice nodded. "Yeap, that's her there."

"That's so awesome. Do mine!" Claire excitedly suggested.

Alice shook her head and added Claire's private phone to the program, straight away, her location pinged at their apartment.

"Now do Jill's. She should be on her way back."

Alice typed in Jill's number. "Oh no. That cant be right."

"What is it?" Claire leaned over her shoulder to look at the screen. "Fuck! Get your coat."

Jill's phone pinged stationary on the map with Rain's dot moving around her. Alice jumped up and grabbed her shoulder holsters as they ran out of the door. Eschewing the elevators, they ran down to the street where Claire jumped on a shiny red motorbike. She handed a helmet back to Alice and strapped herself in. "You wont need those." She nodded to the guns as Alice climbed behind her. "I'm going to rip her fucking head off." She growled.

Alice barely grasped her waist when Claire pulled out into the traffic causing a small pile up behind her.

Alice pulled up tight to Claire so she could maneuver herself with ease through the lanes of static traffic.

After what felt like forever, Claire screeched the bike into the junk yard. She pulled up and saw Rain standing over Jill holding a something cylindrical. She could smell the blood on it and knew it was Jill's. Rain looked up as the headlight hit her full on. She sneered at Claire, dropped the pipe and started to run.

Claire threw the helmet to the side and flew at her, Rain collided with the corrugated metal behind her. Obviously surprised at the speed that Claire reached her.

Before Claire could speak, she heard Alice scream her name out. She looked back quickly and saw a look of devastation on Alice's face.

"What's it gonna be Red? You gonna kill me again or save your friend?" Rain laughed in her face.

Claire dropped Rain and flew back to Alice's side to the fallen Jill. She ran her hands over Jill, glad that the woman was at least unconscious. She looked up, Rain was nowhere to be seen.

"Help her!" Alice cried out.

Claire grit her teeth and sobbed. "I cant." She stroked Jill's face gently. "Oh Jill, I'm so sorry. So so sorry."

"But you can heal her right?" Alice begged.

Claire shook her head. "She's broken nearly every bone she has. I cant heal her." She choked out.

Claire threw her head back and screamed, a primal sound that made Alice's stomach turn. Alice sat back on her haunches, her hands in her hair. Claire was stroking Jill's face softly while tears ran unchecked down her face.

"Turn her."

Claire looked up. "What?"

Alice repeated herself. "Turn her." She grabbed Claire's shoulders.

"I can't! It doesn't work like that. She will become one of those things you hunted, then what? I can't kill her."

"Wesker already killed her. If it doesn't work, then you can kill her. Don't let her die at Wesker's hands. Do it! Turn her!."

"I cant fucking turn her, it takes two, I've never heard of it working with just one." Claire shouted at her.

"And I never heard of Vampires prancing around in designer gear, yet here we all are. You have to at least try damn it. Do it! Turn her!"

Claire growled her rage and bearing her teeth sank her teeth into Jill's neck. When she had all but drained her. Claire tore into her own wrist at the vein, pressing the crimson fountain to Jill's mouth, she pressed the side of her throat making her swallow involuntarily. When Claire was near to passing out, she pulled her wrist away, holding it to her mouth to stop the bleeding. She swayed and fell over next to the still unconscious Jill.

Alice drew her weapon and stood up standing guard over Claire. Waiting. Praying. Begging the heavens to intervene. After what felt like a lifetime, Jill's eyes flew open and she sucked in a breath that sounded across the junkyard.

Alice dropped her weapon and fell to her knees. "Jill? Jill, say something!"

Jill looked at her, for a moment Alice didn't think she recognised her. She reached over for her fallen weapon when Jill growled. "I'm gonna fucking kill her."

Alice sobbed. Claire chuckled from the floor. "That's my girl."

Alice looked around. "We need to get out of here. What do you need?" She helped Claire to stand, worried when the red head held onto her for dear life.

"I need to feed. Now."

"Jesus fucking H Christ." Jill screamed out in pain.

"Whats wrong with her?" Alice panicked.

"Her body is healing. I don't know what Rain did to her, but everything is repairing itself."

"Come on, we need to help you. Can you feed? Are you strong enough."

Claire nodded. "It's going to be messy though. Between me being weak and Jill screaming loud enough to wake the dead, we'll be lucky if I get to feed on rats tonight."

"Gross, I hope you floss."

They staggered out of the junk yard in search of food and a cab home. Emotionally drained, physically exhausted and mentally whip lashed.

And yet very much alive.

*/*/*/

**A/n Special thanks go out to Alexis and StarrH for their help on this. There was a lot of back and forth before I was happy with it. Still not thrilled, but I can live with it for now.**

**Also thanks to Carina Round for her version of Rev 22:20, I think its much sexier than the original and certainly helped get things in place for this chapter.**

**MiccaAbernathy – Thank you, we are nearly done now, hope you enjoy the ride.**

**alexis payton – why do you have to keep reiterating how tall you are. I noticed you doing that recently, whats with that? Are you compensating for something? Do you have a really small boat? Thank you for giving me the night off, as you can see, I forgot to take advantage, perhaps tomorrow? Unlike you, I don't like to leave people with cliffhangers.**

**StarrH – Did you really meet a girl called Noah? Lol, awesome! I hope you enjoyed and your loins are duly serviced :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

"So here we are again?"

Jill lounged back in the bath and smiled. "Come on in Alice, the water's fine."

Alice chuckled with her. "Maybe later. I brought you some coffee. How are you feeling?" She placed the cup down and sat on the edge of the tub.

"Oh, so relieved I cant tell you." Jill sat upright and stared at her limbs as though she had never seen them before. "I have lived with Claire for nearly 500 years. I never forgot my mortality, it's funny, the longer you live, the more you realise you could be on borrowed time you know?"

Alice shrugged. "Not really. Not yet." She smiled.

"Claire kept us alive, but it was never far from our thoughts, that someone could take us away. Not disease, not time, but a stray bullet, a lucky shot from a fight, plane crash, train wreck. Now I don't have to worry. It's such a relief. Luther and I used to wonder if she would ever be able to change us, to make us the same as her. We never thought it would happen. And I have you to thank." She grinned at Alice showing her newly forming teeth.

"I still think you should have let Claire take a photo when your canines fell out." Alice laughed.

"Uh uh. I guess K would have got a kick out of that. How is Claire doing?"

"She's still sleeping, I think she is going to want to feed before we go after Rain, but she said for now, the best thing is sleep. What about you? When will you have to feed?"

"Not for a while. Claire said she thinks I will have to feed more often to start, but draining her nearly dry has left me good for now. Thank you Alice, if you hadn't thought of that..."

"I'm glad I could help. Nothing to lose and all that. I cant believe it worked." She stroked Jill's cheek, smiling when Jill covered her hand. "What was it like Jill?"

"Hard to remember honestly, all I felt was pain."

"It hurt?" Alice queried.

"I don't think so, but as soon as I came around, my broken bones started knitting together. Quelle connasse, I think she broke every fucking joint I have."

Alice choked back a sob, leaning over the tub she threw her arms over Jill. "I'm so glad you are OK."

Jill awkwardly hugged her back, trying unsuccessfully not to drop her in to the water. Alice looked down at her shirt and laughed.

"Something you want to tell me?" A voice from the doorway asked.

Alice looked over to Claire and smiled. "Honey, this isn't what it looks like." She laughed at the state of her waterlogged shirt clinging to her body.

"Sure it is, you are not the only gorgeous immortal now, better up your game Redfield." Jill winked at her.

"Maybe not, but she is the only one I want." Alice sat back on the edge.

Claire hadn't removed her eyes from Alice and her now see through shirt. Jill splashed the bath water at her.

"Mon Deiu. Wait, Claire are you lusting after Alice?"

"Usually." Claire winked at Alice.

"Oh thank god. Kiss her!"

Claire shrugged and pulled Alice to her, kissing her passionately.

"I don't feel it!" Jill exclaimed. "I mean it's hot and she's wet so obviously there is something there, but I don't feel that overwhelming need to get a little alone time. Oh thank all the Gods. Do you know why that is?" She asked Claire. "Oh no, are we no longer connected?" Jill looked like she might cry.

Claire was at her side instantly. "No cher, no, we still are. But you're different now, you are more than human, it's easier for you to deal with your emotions, to close them off. If you practice, you will be able to shut them out completely or open them wider than you ever could before."

"You're sure?" She asked quietly.

Claire kissed her. "Quite sure, be glad, you can now be in the same house as us."

"I'm kinda glad about that, an eternity of your hormones, woo. I would have to plug Bob into the national grid."

Claire shook her head. "Show me your teeth, are they coming through still?" She lifted the side of Jill's lip.

Alice looked over her shoulder fascinated. "They look good. They might be bigger than Claire's."

Jill puffed her chest out. "Bien sur! Are we really surprised?"

"Mine are sharper." Claire rebuked her.

"Really Claire? Really? Are you gonna tell me it's not about the size it's what you do with them?"

"Connarde. Get out of the bath, we have to talk about Rain." Claire walked out.

Alice was about to follow when Jill called her back. "She wont ask you, you know that. You are going to have to ask her."

Alice scrunched her eyebrows together.

"To become like us. You will have to ask her. I warn you though, if you don't, she will always be scared of losing you."

Alice nodded and went after Claire.

"Hey beautiful." Claire smiled as Alice moved into the kitchen. "Did you have a chance to..." Claire's words were cut off by Alice's lips pressing forcefully against hers.

"Change me. Make me like you. I cant imagine life without you and if you feel even half the way I do about you, I wouldn't do that to you. Change me."

"Alice..." Claire lifted her up and pressed her along the breakfast bar kissing her wildly. Alice felt her shirt being peeled away from her body, she tried to remove Claire's t-shirt and when it took too long, she just ripped it away. Within seconds they were half naked and lost to the world.

Jill was about to get out of the tub when a bolt of pure arousal shot through her. She slapped her hands down on the water. "Merde! I knew it was too good to last."

*/*/*/

"Can I finally get in and make a sandwich?" Jill whined from outside.

"Sure, just make sure to wipe the side down." Alice called back as Claire burst out laughing.

"What put you in such a good mood?" Jill asked from inside the fridge.

Claire smiled at Alice, it was a particularly goofy smile that had Alice responding in kind. "Alice is going to join us. Permanently."

Jill smiled at them both. "I'm glad. Although you both look kinda stupid right now. When?"

"I don't want to take any chances. I think a week, I lost most of my blood to you and while I feel fine, no weakness, I don't want to take any chances."

"How does that affect the plan to go after Rain?"

"It doesn't." Alice spoke up.

Claire looked at her. "Rain can wait."

Alice shook her head. "No, we cant wait, every delay gives Wesker more time. We go tonight."

Claire shook her head and Alice recognised the stubborn set to her jaw. "I'm not taking you in there with her. We can wait a week." She crossed her arms and dared anyone to argue.

Alice took the dare. "I managed quite well to stay alive for a number of years before I met you, you know?"

"Really? Cos I remember meeting you when you were about to be very dead by the same woman that I might add, didn't have super powers at the time."

"She hit me in the back of the head, I had a ton of stuff on my mind, I wasn't expecting to be jumped on the way to the take out. I trained her, I know her, and I'm not alone this time. We go in tonight." Alice folder her arms and glared at her lover.

"This is not up for discussion."

Alice went nearly bug eyed at that. Even Jill realised a line had just been crossed.

"Excuse me?" She growled out.

Claire opened her mouth and took a second before she put her foot in it. "I said, we should go in a week."

"No, you said, it was not up for discussion. Do I take orders from you now?"

Claire watched her entire romantic evening unravel before her eyes. "I never said that."

"It sure sounded like that to me."

"See this is the trouble with Lesbian relationships, too much drama."

"Shut up!" Alice and Claire spoke up at the same time.

"Finally, you both agree on something."

Alice put her hands on Claire's hip. "You know I'm right. We have to take her out while we can, Wesker has been playing us like puppets for too long, we have the chance to _safely_ get the upper hand, we need to take it."

Claire grabbed the lapels of Alice shirt. "You do **not** take chances, I don't know what Wesker did to her that brought her back to life and gave her this insane ability to spit bullets back out, but she isn't the person you used to know, I have no idea how strong she is, for all I know, I cant beat her."

Jill snorted. "Please. Alice was she always this crazy or is that a by product?"

"Crazy. She was always unstable. She followed orders, never questioned them unless there was a more violent approach. I don't think she has changed, she is just, I don't know what she is."

Claire looked at Jill. "Are you strong enough? Are you ready for this?"

Jill looked as serious as Alice had ever seen her. "I'm ready, I want this bitch dead."

"OK, go and get ready. We go in tonight." Claire sighed.

As Jill made her way downstairs to grab some clothes, Claire tried again to talk sense to Alice. Before she opened her mouth, Alice placed her fingers across her lips.

"I'll be fine. You will be right there, so will Jill. I know you wont let anything happen to me. I trust you, now you have to trust me, I'm not weak Claire."

"Cariad, I never thought you were weak, I just worry."

"Well try not to, after tonight, we will be one step closer to removing Wesker, then we can get K-mart home and relax OK?"

Claire nodded, desperately trying to ignore the lead weight settling in her stomach telling her this was a bad idea.

*/*/*/

The warehouse district was mostly dark, they had waited for 2 hours before Rain pulled up in her car. Alice had done a sweep for cameras and assured them all that there was no extra security around. Alice wasn't surprised by this, Rain was the kind of person that wanted someone to break in so she would have an excuse to kill them. Claire had picked up the scent of one human patrolling, they watched from the shadows as he made his way back to the warmth of his office. He wouldn't move for another hour.

They stood outside the single door entrance, Alice was heavily armed, Claire and Jill had no need to anything other than the knife that Claire always carried in her boots.

"Are we ready?" Claire asked them both. She was concerned by the look of fury that gathered in Alice's eyes. Before she had a chance to comment on it, Alice drew her weapons, shot the lock off and kicked the door clean of it's hinges.

She stormed into the dimly lit room, guns professionally raised until she saw her target.

Rain was beating against a leather bag hanging form the ceiling, she turned quickly at the noise and couldn't mask the surprise at seeing Alice, Claire and the woman she was certain she left for dead come charging in. Before she had a chance to gather her wits, Alice let loose a spray of gunfire causing her to dive out of the way. A few rounds hit their mark before Alice's guns clicked empty.

Rain grinned at her. "You don't remember blondie?"

Alice tossed her weapons to the side as soon as they clicked, she marched straight up to Rain and let loose a torrent of strikes with her hands and feet. "I remember the party trick, I also remember thinking it looked painful." She deliberately targeted the moving shells that traveled along Rains arms before they could be ejected.

She continued facing off against Rain and despite the obvious speed boosts Rain was now equipped with, Alice was by far the superior fighter and she blocked everything the Latina threw at her.

Jill and Claire stood opened mouthed by the door, neither having moved since Alice had kicked the door in and gone commando on them.

"Wow." Jill offered. "She really can take care of herself."

"I'm still gonna kill her." Claire snapped through gritted teeth. "We agreed she would stay back."

"I don't think Alice agreed cher. Tell me you don't think that's just a little bit hot?"

Claire growled.

Alice was holding her own again Rain, but Rain wasn't tiring and Alice was. She was showing signs of fatigue blocking Rains blows. Rain feinted to the left and Alice left her self exposed to a crippling blow to the ribs. She heard a crack and knew that her side of the fight was over. As Rain followed it up with a vicious kick to the chest, Alice went down. "That all you got? You were always weak Alice."

"Take a look in the mirror, you don't look so pretty Rain, and you are the one with the steroids."

Rain snarled at her and stomped her foot down to where Alice lay catching her breath, each intake causing a mass of pain in her broken ribs. Claire had seen enough, she flew across the room and took Rain off her feet before her foot came down. She held Rain in front of her body, her head held in a vice grip, Rain started struggling wildly. "Two against one? Doesn't seem fair. At least when I killed the slave it was just me and him. I have to say I could have done with some help though, man he wriggled like you wouldn't believe when I strung him up."

Claire was livid, she drew her top lip back, yanked Rains head out of the way and moved to sink her teeth in.

"Claire no!" Alice yelled across the room.

Claire looked over to Alice in confusion.

"That was the plan. Wesker wants you to feed on her."

Rain started laughing. "Damn. And they say blondes are dumb."

Claire looked at her captive. "Why would you let yourself die for Wesker?"

"I have no intention of dying. The second my blood hit your mouth, whatever freaky experiment you are, you would have dropped like a stone and even Alice could have taken you out." She jeered at Claire.

Another shot rang out across the room and Rain dropped to her knees as the bullet took her kneecap out.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." She walked over to the fallen woman, ignoring the grating of her ribs. "What? No snappy comeback while we wait for that bullet to come out."

Rain spat a mouthful of blood on the floor at Alice's feet. "You don't get it, you cant kill me bitch."

Alice pointed the gun at her forehead. "I don't have to. This is for Carlos." And she pulled the trigger.

Jill walked up and watched in horror as the wound in her head already started to fix itself. She grabbed the knife from Claire's boot and grabbing Rains hair, pulled her head back. "Et c'est pour Luther. Ma amie." She pulled the razor sharp blade across the exposed throat.

Rain's hands shot up to her throat, desperately trying to hold the blood in as her exhausted body struggled to keep up.

Finally Claire bent over her. "I made a promise to my friend as she lay dying at your hands. I keep my promises." With a sickening crack, Claire twister her head nearly all the way around before pulling it off her shoulders.

She dropped the head on the floor and stepped away.

"Mal baisee." Jill spat on her corpse.

Claire looked around and spotted a couple of gas canisters and Rains collection of explosives. "I want this place destroyed."

"Wait. Let me look around first." Alice shuffled off to the back wall where all of Rain's possessions were stored. She knew that Claire would be having words about tonight, she didn't want to show how badly Rain had hurt her. Kicking things out of the way her foot caught on a red leather briefcase. She gasped in surprise which brought Claire immediately to her side.

"Are you OK?" She started running her hands over Alice's damaged mid-section. Her face was set in a mask of indifference but Alice could feel the anger below the surface.

"I don't believe it. The bag, pick the bag up."

Claire grabbed the bag and opened it. There was a laptop and some test-tubes inside. She looked curiously at Alice.

"I guess she didn't trust Wesker. This was taken from my apartment. After she tried to kill me that first time. Guess she wanted a little insurance."

Claire was about to make a biting comment about Alice getting her stuff back when Alice spoke up excitedly. "Don't you get it? This is everything we need to expose Wesker!"

Claire's eyes widened in disbelief. "You're kidding me?" She grabbed Alice and hugged her, forgetting about the ribs. When Alice whimpered and fell against her, she swung the bag over her shoulder then scooped Alice into her arms. "I got you, c'mon, lets get out of here.

"Wait, take some of Rains blood."

Claire grabbed an empty tube from the bag and tossed it to Jill.

"You set Jill?" Claire called over.

Jill joined them at the door, a plastic cup in her hand. She nodded and they walked out into the night.

"As they reached a short distance away, Claire looked down at the trail of liquid Jill had run out of the building.

She pulled Alice in tighter to her. "Burn it."

The flame streaked back to the warehouse and caught the charges Jill had stacked up in the middle. Alice heard the explosion and felt the heat of the blast curl around her as she lay safe in Claire's arms.

*/*/*/

**A/n A Public Apology. It has been brought to my attention that I was in fact unfair in suggesting that Alexis at any point left us with Cliffhangers, like that time when we thought Claire was going to die and she joked about it then updated 24 hours later.**

**This was wrong of me.**

**I would also like to state that it was my own insecurities that led to my questioning of her height.**

**This was also wrong.**

**Finally, I have never seen the boat that she is lovingly crafting with her bare hands, but I am certain that it will be great, nay, magnificent.**

**There, can we be friends again now? :)**

**This evenings entertainment was brought to you with the help of Prodigy – Smack My Bitch Up.**

**Katgensen93 – Tsk, you assume I have a dollar ;) I didn't start with the next morning. Hopefully it went OK :) Nearly done now, not much longer to wait. Thanks for the review!**

**MiccaAbernathy – They do make my life easier, hope you survived the heat lol**

**StarrH – Shower me with baklava! You wouldn't believe what I would do for baklava, its a weakness. You just cant get quality stalkers these days. No pride in their work. I myself am an excellent stalker as Alexis may or may not attest to, depending on her mood. I will check my calender if you like, see if I can squeeze you in, then you can tell Noah that you are covered :D Alice needed some stud time I thought, but hats it for now, Claire was quite clear that it was a one off.**

**G3n3ralRedfield – It worries me as well that you still like Rain. She is evil and had to die. Sorry about your pants tho. I tell you, if I had a $ for every pair of pants...**

**Angelsgir – Yeah that would have sucked. I think if I ever write another fic though, I will just write it and post when it's finished, it's a hard schedule to keep.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

"_Still no word on the where abouts of Umbrella CEO Albert Wesker since the shocking revelation of bio chemical weapons and the deliberate infection of thousands of people around Europe and South America. A Federal task-force joined with forces from the members of the G8 has been conducting search and seizure in the main Umbrella headquarters known to the employees as the hive. Wesker maintained a private army that was trained to go out and find pockets of infection, infection that we now know were leaked intentionally. Many of the senior ranks have since been detained while authorities try to figure out exactly how much they knew about the missions they were sent on. Wesker himself is believe to have gone to ground with an insider claiming no one knew where he has fled to."_

The female announcer continued talking as various shots of Umbrella, Wesker, the private army and others ran across the giant television screen.

"Oh look! There's you Alice." Jill said as she played with the blonde strands of Alice's hair.

Alice was laying across the couch, her head in Jill's lap watching the drama unfold. "That's me."

"Do you still have that uniform, Claire might weep if you don't."

Alice laughed. "Hmm, I'm not sure about that. I think she preferred it when she thought I needed looking after."

Jill snorted. "Don't be so sure. I was watching her when you fought Rain, she may have wanted to kill you, but I'm pretty sure she wanted to get you naked first."

Alice laughed. "Well, the ribs are pretty much healed now so I'm sure we'll find out. Damn, twenty four hour news and I swear it's all dedicated to Wesker. Bastard, I hope they find him."

"What will they do if they can? I don't think they will find him. Wesker may have lost his power, but I am sure he has money scattered all over the world. We do. All he has to do is hide out for fifty years and he can start all over again."

Alice nodded her agreement. "I spoke to Claire about that last night, the next time he shows up, be it next month or fifty years, we need to go after him straight away. He cant be allowed to gain that kind of power again, he's too much of a threat."

"She agree?"

"She did. For now she wants to wait until this dies down a little before she brings K-mart home. She told me she sent a message to her through the security firm that is guarding her. Just to let her know we are OK. Is she going to freak when she knows that Claire turned you?" Alice looked up at Jill.

"Hardly, I think she will want to know when Claire is going to turn you and how long before she can join us." Jill laughed. She continued running her fingers through Alice's hair. "Talking of, when..."

Alice blushed, a sight Jill found endearing on the woman she had seen beating the crap out of a mutated super soldier. "Soon. She said a week, it's been five days since we leaked the information about Wesker. I'm kinda scared."

"Not having second thoughts are you cher?"

Alice wrapped her arms around Jill's legs and snuggled up to get comfy. "No, but it's a big thing you know?"

Jill did know. She thought back on the centuries at Claire's side and how often both she and Luther talked about what it would be like to have the security of forever. "How do you think she changed me? She really does believe it takes two, though she never said why, I think she doesn't know. She often said that all the offspring just knew things, but had no idea why they did. How do you think she did it?"

"I don't know. When we came home that night after Rain, she was really upset, kept saying what if she could have changed you before, you and Luther. What it his death was avoidable. She was so upset."

"That's ridiculous, she couldn't have known."

"That's what I told her. It's not like she could have gambled and tried to turn you before, the only reason she did it was because I told her she had nothing to lose. Who knows. Maybe because you were so close for so long. Honestly it's all speculation, we don't even know how it works let alone why it worked this one time when it probably shouldn't have."

Jill made a non committal noise and went back to the television. Five minutes later, the sound of the key being turned in the main door echoed through the hallway.

"Someones excited." Jill laughed.

"You can feel that as well?"

Jill nodded. "In the lounge." She called out. "What are you in such a good mood about?"

Claire walked in, smiling when she saw her lover sprawled out over the couch, using Jill as a pillow. "I had a very productive morning." She moved in front of the TV and knelt down in front of them. "Any thing new?" She motioned to the news casters.

"Just more rehashing of the facts. The hive is being dismantled. Guess I wont be getting my plants back." Alice joked.

"About that. I didn't want to tell you anything until I was sure I could do it, but I have a surprise for you." She handed over a set of keys to Alice.

"Whats this?" She smiled and sat up.

"I hired a few people to break into your apartment. Everything you owned is in storage."

Alice burst into tears.

"Hey, hey now, why are you crying?" Claire looked terrified, she hadn't told Alice she planned to do this wanting to keep it as a surprise, she had hoped it would be a happy surprise though.

Jill left to make some coffee and give them some privacy, Claire took her place on the couch and pulled Alice into her lap. She stroked her hair and whispered into her ear, waiting for the blonde woman to calm down. Despite her apparent abilities as a special forces soldier, abilities that literally took Claire's breath away, Alice was as emotional as the young K-mart sometimes

As Alice calmed down, Claire pulled her closer. "It wasn't supposed to make you cry you know?"

Alice chuckled. "I swear I was never this emotional before I met you. Honestly I don't remember the last time I cried, this is your fault you know?"

Claire kissed the top of her head and laughed. "How's that?"

"I'm a lot of things with you that I never thought about myself."

"Like what?" Claire was curious.

"Emotional for a start. And affectionate. I've never been very affectionate with people, yet with you and Jill, I seem to be turning into a giant house cat." She laughed.

"Well, to be fair, we're different, Jill and I have always shared an affection, more so than we did with Luther even, probably as we're both women, you're just picking up on that."

"Submissive." Alice frowned.

"Excuse me?" Claire laughed again.

"Don't laugh. Submissive. I never considered myself to be submissive, certainly not in bed. But with you?"

Claire practically purred. She leaned down and whispered in Alice's ear. "I love that you are so submissive. Really. None of my lovers were particularly submissive, but you? Ooh la la, I can barely keep my hands off you. I walk in the door and see you laying on the couch and all I can think of is that time you blackmailed me into taking you out with me." She was kissing along Alice's jaw line, around her ears where she knew Alice to be most sensitive. "I loved watching you." She said so quietly Alice nearly missed it. "Watching you with Jill was possibly the second most erotic thing I have seen in my life."

Alice tilted her head to give her lover as much access as she wanted. "What was the first?"

Claire started leaving loves bites across her neck. "Watching you touch yourself for me on the couch."

Alice blushed. "I've never done that before."

Claire groaned. "God Alice, it was incredible, I had to hold myself back. Physically hold myself back from touching you." She kissed her then, thrusting her tongue into Alice's mouth, taking what she wanted, she felt Alice let go and leave all the control to Claire.

Claire moved away to take a breath. "I want you so badly. Right now. I want you."

Alice moaned low in her throat. She stood up, taking Claire's hands and pulling her to her feet. With a slow smile, she led her back to the bedroom.

When they got half way there, a knock at the front door sounded, making them stop and look at each other. Jill came out of the kitchen. "You expecting something?"

Claire shook her head. She let go of Alice's hand and moved to answer the front door. A strange Asian women stood there in what Claire thought could best be described as an evening dress. Claire cocked her head to the side in greeting.

"I apologise for disturbing you, my name is..."

Claire barely saw Alice move before she charged past the red head and slammed the Asian woman against the wall behind her, a knife appeared from nowhere and was now pressed against the throat of their visitor.

"Ada Wong. Albert Wesker's Personal assassin. I know exactly who and what you are, but the real question is why I don't kill you right now?"

Jill ran to the door when Alice's palpable anger surged through their connection. Claire felt it as well and watched the woman like a hawk in case her lover was in danger.

"I don't work for Albert Wesker any longer."

"I don't care." Alice snarled in her face.

"What is it with Wesker sending assassins?" Jill asked from behind the drama in the hallway. "Will we be keeping this one as well?"

"You should care. I know where he can be found." She smirked. "Alice, you have to trust me." She put her hands on Alice's shoulders.

There was an audible snarl behind Alice. "Remove your hands, or I will."

"So not keeping this one then?" Jill quipped.

Ada dropped her hands and remained as placid as she was able. "You know who I am, and what I am, but I have never wronged you Alice. I didn't come here to harm your family, I came only to bring you news that may benefit both of us."

Claire put her hand on Alice's back, instantly she felt the blonde calm down. "Let's hear her out cariad. Come on, put the knife away, she cant hurt me." Claire deliberately looked at Ada when she said that.

Alice dropped the knife to her side, she turned her back and walked into the apartment. Claire held her arm out inviting Ada to join them.

"Talk." Alice snapped at her as the door closed.

Ada moved her hand to a pouch situated next to her gun, strapped to her thigh. Alice stood up straighter while Claire and Jill moved simultaneously in front of Alice.

She pulled out a photo and held it out to show them. "This is my sister. Wesker has held her in a facility in Japan for the last six years. Provided I did everything he asked. She remained safe. This is why I am his personal assassin, I have incentive to succeed where perhaps others did not. Provided I fulfill my missions, she was safe. Fail or die in the attempt, she would follow soon after.

"I'm sorry. I had no idea." Alice offered.

Ada shrugged as though it was of little consequence. "Wesker has had to leave Umbrella behind. He is currently still in the United States, but he intends to leave for the Umbrella facility in Japan. In return for his bio weapon research, the Japanese government have offered him asylum. He is waiting on their people making the arrangements for his safe passage out of the country within a few days. I have been sent on one last mission before joining him there."

"Whats the mission?" Claire asked.

Ada looked to Alice.

"Let me take a wild stab in the dark here." Alice offered in her most sarcastic tone.

"Forgive me, I know a little about assassins, they don't tend to knock the front door when they arrive." Jill said before Claire could go into protection overdrive. "I assume you're not here to kill Alice?"

"I am not. However, if by the time his travel arrangements are complete Wesker is still alive, I will have no choice but to return and complete my assignment."

"You will fail." Claire replied coldly.

"Perhaps. Let us hope it does not come to that." She reached down into the pouch again and pulled out a small drive. "Everything you need to know, you will find on this." She handed the chip to Alice but Claire stepped in front and took it instead.

Alice rolled her eyes at her over protective lover.

"I must leave now." She looked at Claire. "I hope we do not see each other again Claire Redfield."

Claire dipped her head as the small Asian woman left the apartment.

"She didn't look like a top assassin." Jill joked.

"With Ada Wong, looks are incredibly deceiving. I'm surprised Wesker didn't choose her for his experiments instead of Rain. She may well have been unstoppable. Let's take a look at this chip shall we?" She took the device off of Claire and plugged it into her laptop.

*/*/*/

Wesker was staying at the weekend home of a corrupt Senator. The chip listed enormous financial transfers into a Caymans bank account belonging to the Senators wife. The chip also listed the security codes to penetrate the property.

"We go after him tonight. Jill will come with me, Alice can stay here."

"Oh boy." Jill reached up and scratched her ear.

"Stay here? And if his travel schedule gets bumped up, you think staying here to wait for Ada is a good idea do you?"

"I'll go make some more coffee shall I?" Jill scarpered out to the kitchen.

"Alice don't do this."

"Let's get something straight, I am perfectly..."

"He's a fucking immortal Alice." Claire yelled at her, it was the first time Alice had ever heard Claire raise her voice. "He is an immortal with nothing, **nothing** left to lose. It's been my experience over the years that this is when a man is most dangerous. He is running and he is scared. I will kill him tonight, but don't think for a moment that he wont try to take you with him. You cant ask that of me Alice." Claire wrapped her arms around herself as though the very thought of Alice dying was more than she could bear.

Alice could feel the waves of distress pouring of off Claire, she was surprised Jill hadn't come running back into the room. She walked behind Claire slowly as if not to startle her. Draping herself over her lovers back, she pulled back her hair and spoke softly. "Then do it now. Take me now so I never leave your side again."

Claire whirled around, her eyes that same intense shade that Alice loved so much. "Are you sure? There is no going back if we do this."

"I don't want to go back. I love you."

Claire's world stopped revolving. "You do?" She whispered.

Alice kissed her gently. "Of course I do, how could I not? I belong with you Claire."

Jill poked her head out of the kitchen. "What's with the roller coaster ride? Are you OK in here?" She noticed the tears running down Claire's face. Jill could count the number of times she had seen Claire crying on one hand. "Claire?"

Alice smiled at her. "We are going to need your help Jill. Do it now sweetheart, make me yours."

Claire looked at Jill and nodded. "This might hurt a little, but it will be over quickly. When Jill drains you, you drink from me. Fight with all you have to stay with me Alice, you'll be weak, fight it, OK? You understand?"

Alice nodded. She looked at Jill. "Please." She whispered and bared her neck.

Jill looked at Claire and smiled. "Ready?" When Claire nodded Jill whipped her head around and sank her teeth cleanly into Alice's throat.

Alice cried out, her instincts to protect herself came crashing to the forefront. She struggled against Claire at her back and Jill at her front, pressed between two immovable objects, she felt herself drifting away.

"Stay with us cariad, don't fight us, stay with us."

As Alice slumped in their arms, Jill pulled away and took the bulk of Alice's weight in her arms. Claire wasted no time in biting her wrist open. Unlike when Alice had fed from her before, she tore into the vein and covered them all in blood before she had a chance to press her wrist to Alice's mouth. "Come on baby, take it, stay with me cher."

"Oh God she's not responding. Come on Alice, wake up." Jill started to panic.

"Come on, damn it Alice, you have to fight. Please fight Alice. Please." She pressed against her throat forcing her to swallow. "You promised you wouldn't do this to me. Don't do this to me cariad." She felt the tears falling down her cheeks. She spoke quietly into Alice's ear, for Alice alone to hear her. "I love you Alice, please don't leave me."

Claire sucked in a breath. Finally, she felt the suction on her wrist. "Fuck. Come on Alice, you can do this. Come on baby."

She felt her wrist grabbed as Alice drank deeply from her. Finally she pulled away, her eyes wide open, she looked up at Claire who was crying freely. "I thought I'd lost you. Don't scare me like that again."

Alice smiled up at her, cutting a rather ghoulish figure with blood smeared across her face. Claire thought she had never looked so beautiful.

"Are you OK?" Jill asked her.

Alice took a few deep breaths to center herself. She could feel the blood flowing around her body, she could hear it moving, she could hear her own heartbeat and something else, she could hear Claire's, racing, wildly out of rhythm. "Did it work?" She asked. She coughed as a pain shot through her gums. Gingerly touching her teeth, she felt them move, both canines moving freely before one peeled away followed by the other. She took them out of her mouth, wiping the blood away, managing to make things worse instead of better. As she grew stronger, she was aware of Claire's weight hanging on her.

"I got you, sit down, rest a while."

Claire did as she was told, Jill and Alice lowered her to the couch where she fell backwards. "Show me." She pointed to her own teeth.

Alice looked horrified. "No! I don't want you to see me like this. Wait for the new ones to come back."

Jill burst out laughing at the absurdity of it all.

*/*/*/

Alice stepped out of the shower, taking inventory of her new body. All her previous aches from the beating she took from Rain were gone. She was stronger, faster. She moved from one end of the bathroom to the other, a blur to the human eye to see what she was capable off.

Claire and Jill had gone out so Claire could feed. It took Claire some time to believe that it had worked and all was OK before she would leave her, Jill finally dragged her out of the house so Alice could clean up.

She looked in the mirror above the sink, pulling her top lip back she stared in fascination at the new canines almost fully extended. She stared at her reflection, barely able to comprehend that this time last month she was hunting down creatures like she had become.

No. Not like her. Not like Claire. They were evolutionary, they were perfected, not some soulless wandering spirit. She smiled, trying to practice the gesture, aware of the two bumps that were never there before. She was about to talk to herself to make sure she didn't end up with a lisp or something equally annoying when she heard the door close along with Jill and Claire talking.

"How did it go?" She asked.

Claire smiled at her and took her in her arms. "All better." She leaned over and placed a chaste kiss on her mouth.

"You took Jill with you?" Alice asked in surprise, remembering how Claire fought to let her come with her when she fed.

"Yeap and I didn't have to masturbate for her either."

"You told her!" Alice yelled at Claire who in turn glared at Jill.

"Can you just for once keep your mouth shut!"

Jill laughed, she had never felt so happy. Alice had joined them, they had nothing to fear any longer. Wesker would soon be a memory and they could move on into the future. Provided Alice didn't kill Claire of course. She laughed again. "I'm going to get ready. We leave in an hour yes?"

Claire nodded and when Jill left the room she turned to her fuming lover.

"I cant believe you told her."

"I was happy, it just slipped out."

"Uh huh, see if I do that for you again." Alice huffed.

Claire looked distraught. "I'm sorry, I promise I will never tell her anything again. Ever. Honestly." She made some stupid gesture with her hands that Alice couldn't decide if she was trying to cross herself or cross her heart or talk to her in sign language and she started laughing.

"I promise. What can I do? Anything, tell me anything and I'll do it." Claire said sincerely.

Alice pondered for a second before a devilish look stole over her face. "Anything?"

Claire nodded as fast as she could.

Alice leaned into her ear and spoke softly. "We have an hour before we leave. How about I take your ass this time." She took Claire's hand and led her to the darkened bedroom, grinning as she closed the door behind them.

*/*/*/

"It feels anti-climatic somehow." Jill pondered out loud.

"How so?"

She looked at Claire. "All these years of avoiding him, of constantly tracking him, always knowing where he was, what he was doing and here we are, about to kill him. When you see this kind of thing in the movies, there's always a run up, some epic music score you know?"

"Did you want me to book you a marching band?" Alice laughed at her.

"You know what, never mind, I was just taking a moment."

"Take it when he is dead. Are you ready?" Claire called to Alice.

Alice looked over and sneered. She tossed her duster aside and drew her weapons, with practiced ease, she shot the lock off and kicked the door aside. Not bothering with weapons knowing they were of no use here, she holstered them as she and Claire strode purposefully inside. She stood in the foyer of the large house and there, at the top of the ornate staircase stood Albert Wesker, his irritating arrogant smirk glancing down at them. "Well well, however did you manage that? He sniffed the air and looked at Alice.

Claire shrugged. "What can I say, I don't shoot blanks."

Ada Wong walked out from behind him. "Please distract our guests for me." He addressed her. She walked down the stairway toward Alice and Jill. Alice rested her hand on her weapons. As Ada came even with Claire she inclined her head. "Good luck to you Claire Redfield."

Claire tipped her head in response. "If you need help with your sister, you know where to find me."

Ada Wong left the building abandoning Wesker to his fate.

"There is still only the two of you. Do you really think you can best me?" He mocked Claire.

Alice began to walk toward the side of the staircase near the open patio doors.

"Alice isn't part of this. This is between you and I Albert. This was always been between you and I."

"Of course, you don't want to lose another of your lovers to me. Just you and I then?"

"You always did talk too much." Claire charged across the room colliding with him mid air, their fists were a blur as they ducked and moved, neither prepared to lose ground. Alice stared in amazement as the fight seemed to move in slow motion for her eyes. She had seen Claire move at super speeds when she was just human, now she could see every twist and turn that Claire made while she fought Wesker.

Alice could scarcely believe what she was seeing. Claire Redfield was magnificent.

The foyer of the palatial home was rapidly destroyed as the two immortals fought for their lives, crashing into walls and bringing parts of the ceiling down around their ears. Neither of them showed signs of tiring, neither of them showed signs of weakening. For every bone that broke, it was instantly mended, for every bruise that formed, it vanished before her eyes.

No matter that Claire was holding her own, watching her lover take such a brutal beating was hard on Alice, but she stood her ground, the breeze from the outside brushing up against her, waiting, knowing it was sure to come. When the light fittings thirty feet in the air came crashing down around Claire and Wesker, she started to mentally will him to do what she knew he would. Finally, he thrust Claire away from him and before she could re-enter the fray, he took his chance, he was just a blur as he charged at Alice, spinning her around so she was pressed into his body, her head in a vice grip. Claire screeched to a halt in front of him, they shared the same air they were so close.

"You seem very focused, perhaps we should even the playing field slightly. Say good bye to your lover Claire."

Claire smiled at him. A nasty, angry smile that turned her beautiful blue eyes an almost violet. "Good bye Albert."

He looked momentarily confused when suddenly he felt it. The open window behind him, something moved through it and he felt a sharp pin prick in his neck and a soft voice in his ear. "May you suffer an eternity for the pain you have caused." Jill pushed the hypodermic needle in and watched with satisfaction as Rain's infected blood, the blood that was engineered to kill Claire went rushing into his veins.

"What have you done?" He wailed out, dropping to the floor, clumsily reaching for the needle in his neck.

Claire walked toward him as he lay writhing on the floor. "I never got a chance to ask, but I would guess, that we just made you mortal." She leaned into his face. "Human." She hissed.

Alice stepped away from him, as much as he had inflicted upon her, this moment belonged to Claire and Jill, for over 500 years he had terrorised them, taking so much from them, this was a long time coming for them and Alice didn't want to distract from that.

"And I supposed you intend to have me thrown into a human Jail for what remains of my life? How very inventive of you. Touche."

"That was the plan." Claire smirked at him.

Jill leaned in closer and her heart soared as she could smell the fear coming from him. "That was the plan." She smiled, bearing her teeth at him. "Thankfully, Claire let me change it." With a roar of rage born from years of hatred, Jill leapt on him and proceeded to tear him apart.

When Wesker was nothing more than a pulp of unrecognisable flesh, Claire stepped in and took the now sobbing Jill into her arms. Jill's rage had finally run its course and she was left emotionally exhausted. "It's over. He cant hurt you any more. It's over."

Alice came to the other side and the two women held onto Jill who seemed unable to hold herself upright. When she finally came back to herself, she took a deep breath, feeling the weight lifted from her shoulders.

"Let's go home." She husked out, her throat raw from screaming.

They left the mess for the corrupted Senator to return home to.

*/*/*/

They woke up the following morning, all three of them curled up together in Claire's large bed. Claire could feel how much lighter Jill felt through their connection, but she could also feel how drained she was. It would take a while before it really sank in for her. Jill had been wounded far more than any of them. From her brother to her entire family, to the breaking she suffered at the hands of Rain. Wesker had taken great delight in tormenting her over the years. She would get used to this new freedom of that Claire had no doubt, but for now, she wanted to keep her close.

There was one last thing they needed to do before they could move on. Claire had already decided it was time for them to leave New York and settle somewhere else. But first they had to bring the rest of their family together.

They exchanged very few words on the flight to Canada, when the limo driver pulled up to the hotel that Claire had hired for K-mart and her security, Jill started to become more animated.

"She doesn't know we are here?"

Claire shook her head.

"And she doesn't know about Me? About Alice?"

"Nope, she knows nothing." Claire spoke briefly to the security head thanking him for his service, assuring him that they were quite capable of taking things from here. She waited for a few minutes while he radioed his team in and prepared to leave the building.

The three of them made their way up to the suite that K-mart was staying in. As they approached the door, they could hear the tell tale sign of K-marts improvised karaoke.

"_And I sing on the piano, tear my yellow dress and cry and cry and cry and, over the love of you."_

Claire threw her hand over her mouth quickly before the laughter poured out. K-mart was singing along, very badly, swaying and nodding her head to the beat while she mimed playing at the baby grand.

Jill had no such decorum. She took a deep breath and yelled form the doorway. "Sing it K-mart!"

K-mart turned around so fast she fell backwards of the piano stool. Alice laughed and Claire could no longer contain herself.

K-mart ran toward them, stopping briefly when she noticed something was different. "Did you do it? Is he dead?"

Claire smiled at her. "He is. He cant hurt us again."

K-mart smiled so widely Jill wondered if her face hurt. "He's really gone? You're free of him? How did you do it?" She whispered.

"I had some help." Claire replied as Alice and Jill both smiled, showing their teeth.

"Oh my God. You totally fucking did it!" She walked toward them, scared that any minute they might disappear. "You really did it. I cant believe it." She stood on her tip toes and pulled Jill's top lip back while the brunette laughed and slapped her hands away.

"So when do I get to join? Can we do it now?" She clapped her hands excitedly.

Claire hugged her. "Absolutely, we can do it right now if you want?"

"Oh my God, really?"

"Of course." Alice hugged her as well. "I mean, who wouldn't want to spent eternity as a 14 year old right?"

Jill nodded. "Right."

K-mart glared at them. "I hate you."

Claire hugged her again. "I hate you too sweetheart. Tell you what, I will give you eternity as soon as you learn to sing OK?"

K-mart rolled her eyes. "Deal. Can we go home now?"

"Grab your things K, the cars waiting."

*/*/*/

**A/n Epilogue and we is outta here!**

**Aliceabernathy96 – Team Vampires. I should have thought of that when I was trying to figure out a title! **

**Guest – Thank you :) That's an incredibly sweet thing to say. Really glad you are enjoying yourself**

**alexis payton – Funny you should say that, I wanted to make out with you, after we agreed never to pretend fight again, I thought we should have pretend makeup sex. As you were not here, I had it without you. I was, as you can imagine, really fucking good. You were pretty good, but I think your mind might have been elsewhere. Perhaps it was the celibacy issue. Either way, have a cigarette. **

**Alaska sounds fun, I look forward to joining you, if it turns out to be a bust, just hang around on the beach and wait for me, I'm sure I can find a world war 2 era Russian plane around here somewhere.**

**As for Alice, I actually had a great deal of fun making her different while still keeping many of the qualities that we love about her. **

**StarrH – Wow, perhaps you would consider stalking me instead. You sound very helpful. Covering me in baklava AND helping me clean up. Yep, you should stalk me, as you are new to the stalking business, do let me know if you need a clue. I also like a good decapitation, but my favourite by far is defenestration, which I tried desperately hard to work into the story, but as fabulous as that word is, it just doesn't sit well. **

**I considered the high heels and whip but I got too distracted to write. Perhaps in the next one ;)**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Epilogue**

**6 months later**

Being free of Wesker gave them all a new lease of life. They decided to move to a new city, somewhere they could access life's underbelly but stay far enough away to give K-mart a decent life, San Francisco became the final choice and Claire had traveled down a few times to find a new home for them.

Claire had also gone to visit Carlos's widow. As much as it broke Alice's heart, she new that she had to leave them behind, her new immortality would raise questions that she could not answer. As most people thought her dead, it was deemed to be the best time.

Claire and Jill visited them late one evening and told her Alice had set up a life insurance policy naming her and her daughter sole beneficiaries. With Alice's death confirmed, she handed over a check for five million dollars. Claire told her that she and Alice had been friends and that Alice had often mentioned how much she loved Carlos and his family. That the proudest day of her life was being asked to stand as godmother. They left the widow telling her that should she need anything in future, money, legal assistance, she should get in touch. They handed her a card and left.

Alice had intended to take over K-mart's home schooling, but with Wesker gone and Claire holding legal guardianship over the girl, they had no need to hide her away. She was now happily enrolled in a local school and fitting in nicely with a new set of friends.

Their new home was a 5 bedroom property with 5 acres of land at the back complete with pool. Needless to say, K-mart became very popular with her friends and it wasn't uncommon for the grounds to be filled with noise from rowdy teenagers.

The house also had a renovated basement that Alice turned into a gym. She was proud of her skills when she was mortal and even though she had no real need of them any longer, she kept them up. Claire encouraged it and was often found sitting downstairs mesmerised as she watched Alice going through her various routines. After the first few times of Claire visiting, Alice thought it prudent to keep a lock on the door so no one would walk in on Claire showing her appreciation for Alice.

Alice had taken to immortality very well. Her first night out feeding, she didn't feel the need for privacy as Claire had done, both Jill and Claire had gone with her for moral support. New York was a hot bed of the sick and twisted, both Jill and Alice had followed Claire's position on taking life, they preyed on the cruel of society, the people that wouldn't be missed. She had hung back in the shadows, waiting for the right person. When a man took up position and started setting up to sell his wares to his evening clients, Alice new it would be him. She stepped out of the dark and moved with her immortal speed, crashing him into the dumpsters behind them.

He stared at her, looming over him and Alice faltered. Her body cried out to her to take his life and she fought it, struggling to come to terms with it. She could hear Claire's voice in her head, telling her that her body knew what to do, to relax and not fight.

Her hands clasped the sides of his face, faltering one last time at his expression of fear, she stared into his eyes, he wasn't a man anymore, he was her survival, he would take her pain away, he would keep her with Claire. No remorse, no pity, just survival, she closed her eyes, pressed her lips to his throat, and bit down.

Colours, hundreds of colours behind her closed lids, the blood ran freely, tainted with alcohol it ran faster than she could keep up, it ran across her face, her body, but her mouth knew what to do, using her tongue to halt the flow of blood, she swallowed quickly, feeling her pain recede, feeling her senses lift higher than she had ever felt before, she moved her tongue across the wound, clearing the way for more of his life to flow into her, she could feel so much, but above all, she felt aroused, very aroused. As the last of the blood came from her now silent victim, she ground her hips forward, trying desperately to facilitate the friction in her lower body, she threw her head back, gasping as what felt like a climax took over her body, the man in her arms slumped to the ground taking Alice with him.

Like the others, she hunted alone after that.

*/*/*/

Alice woke up surprised to find herself the only one in bed, listening carefully, she could hear the sounds of Claire in the bathroom attached to their room. Claire had insisted on having a shower installed that matched if not bettered the one she had in New York. Alice had pleasant memories of their shower in New York so didn't object.

She rolled over feeling the familiar ache in her loins when she thought of Claire in the shower with her. Her immortality changed her in many subtle ways, but she remained as emotional as she was before and to Claire's delight, just as submissive.

She moved her hands below the sheets, running across her warm naked flesh. She rolled onto her stomach and ground her hips down into her hand, moaning softly at the feeling. The sheet became restrictive so she kicked it away with her feet, loving the feel of the cool air from the open window traveling across her body.

She was unaware of the sound of the shower finishing or the bathroom door opening until she heard a husky voice behind her.

"I will never tire of that, no matter how long we live."

Alice smiled, her lovers arousal filtered through her senses intensifying her own. She stroked herself faster, her hips moving rhythmically up and down.

She felt the bed dip as Claire sat down and felt the smooth skin of the redheads hand on her thigh.

"Show me."

"Show you what?" She teased.

Claire bit the back of her leg gently. "Show me how wet you are."

Alice moaned out loud. She loved Claire's voice, her touch, knowing what she could do to her lover by just laying here and pleasuring herself. She stretched her arms above her head, pulling herself up on the edge of the bed. Her hips lifted in the air and she dipped her back so her breasts scraped across the sheets.

She felt the hand move from her thigh to her center, Claire's fingers on her ass using her thumb to move up and down her folds, rubbing across her clit, teasing her higher and higher.

"I love seeing you like this. Seeing how wet you are, how easily I could slide inside you right now." She pushed her thumb inside to make the point and Alice writhed in response.

The bed shook again as Claire stood up, dropping her towel to the ground and knelt behind her lover, she pushed her fingers inside, filling Alice as she twisted them and pulled back out. She repeated this motion until she heard what she wanted.

"Please Claire."

Claire kept her fingers moving, waiting.

"I need to come. Let me come baby." She begged. She could feel Claire's breath getting closer to her sex. When Claire ran her tongue around her wet center she nearly crawled off the bed.

Claire kept her fingers at a steady pace while she teased Alice to release with her mouth. Alice became louder and louder until with a cry she dropped down to the bed, burying her face in the pillows.

Claire ran her hands up Alice's back, climbing on top of her, biting gently at her shoulders, waiting for Alice to come back to herself and return the favour.

Alice moved her head around and kissed Claire, knowing how it turned the red head on when Alice would kiss her while she had Alice's taste on her lips.

She looked over Claire's shoulder and suddenly pulled away. "Crap, is that the time?"

She shot off the bed leaving Claire confused as to what was happening. "Did I miss something?" She said and Alice couldn't miss the petulance in her voice.

"I'm so sorry, I forgot. I'll make it up to you later, I swear." Alice kissed her again quickly and started throwing on her clothes.

"Forgot what?"

"It's Jill's birthday!" Alice called out manically trying to fasten her jeans.

"And?" Claire was in full pout mode now.

"Present."

"We said we would give her presents after dinner."

There was a muffled noise from beneath the sweater Alice was pulling on. "Cant, this one wont wait. Any minute now."

As if on cue, there was a horn honking outside the house.

Alice ran downstairs trying to settle her sweater, one sock on and the other waving around in her hand, she reached the front door just as Jill and K-mart were opening it.

"Happy birthday Jill!" Alice called to her and threw her arms around the excited brunette. "I got you something, it just arrived." She said happily.

Jill and K-mart walked out to the large trailer being towed behind the hummer in their front driveway.

Claire came downstairs dressed in a bathrobe to see what had Alice so distracted. "What did you get her?" She laughed.

There was a grating, snorting bellowing sound followed by Jill's high pitched squeal as she looked in the back of the truck. K-mart followed her and started dancing around clapping wildly causing Rembrandt to start growling at the driver.

Claire shut her eyes and groaned. "Please tell me you didn't?"

Alice laughed as she put her arm around Claire's waist. "I thought it would make her happy."

Jill rushed back and flung herself at Alice. "Oh my God Alice I love it! I love it! And I love you!" She covered Alice in kisses as she held the rope coming out of the truck.

Claire sighed. "You bought her a fucking donkey?"

He came ambling out of the trailer chewing nonchalantly on the rope Jill was holding. He took one look at Claire and bellowed at her.

"Great, just great."

*/*/*/

**A/n And there we go. Thank you so much for all the reviews and faves / follows etc. It's been a blast and it's been exhausting. I wanted to write so much more, particularly about Wesker and Rain and their involvement with Alice, but I don't think people want to read that so much, especially if it is being updated daily. If I ever do this again, and that's a big if, I would write it completely and publish all at once.**

**Thank you especially for my duo of commenters and encouragers, I look forward to seeing you both in Arcadia! We offer safety and security, food and shelter. We wont have any baklava left but Alexis and Starrh will welcome you warmly.**

**Look out for the sequel. Claire Vs Henry the Donkey. Smack-down.**


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